Kevin EuDaly/photos as noted
On Thursday, July 16, 2026, my phone lit up with a text from good friend Mel Wilson. “It looks like Spencer is canceled,” he wrote. When I asked why, he responded that he didn’t know, but he’d seen a text from Eric Hendrickson, who works in logistics for Norfolk Southern, indicating he’d given up. In short order I had contact information for Eric, and told Mel I’d contact him the next morning. Mel indicated I’d better do that early because they were talking about releasing the cancellation announcement on Friday at 1p.m.
Throngs of visitors roam the bleacher area near the turntable on Saturday, August 29. BNSF 1776 occupies prime real estate as NYS&W SD45-2 slips by in the background on one of the museum’s hourly excursion trains. Several fire engines hoist the American flag, adding to the festive vibe. — Andrew Grahl
Friday morning I called Eric and introduced myself. I asked him to tell me the story on why it was canceled. Over an hour later I knew the details — and it was a quite complicated political quagmire. I then offered to contribute enough sponsorship to get a bunch of locomotives moved to Spencer. That made all the difference to Eric. He said, “Let me make some calls — I’ll call you back in a little while.” Eric had been working on the 250th Event at Spencer for over a year.
One of the most popular photo lineups was Milwaukee Road SD40-2 1776, Santa Fe 5704, and Norfolk Western 1776, in brilliant light Friday morning, August 28, 2026. ATSF 5704 is owned by the Southern California Railroad Museum. It traveled the farthest to Spencer from Perris, California, 2,300 miles! — Andrew Grahl
When he called back, Spencer was on again! In short order I was introduced to the inside group at Spencer: Kelly Alexander, Director and CEO at the North Carolina Transportation Museum; Marcus Neuabacher, Museum Director of Administration; Lane Baker, VP of Rail Operations; and co-sponsor Bill Stephens of Trains Magazine. These are impassioned enthusiastic folks through and through, and these are the folks that made it happen at the museum. We spent the rest of that day working on a different press release, one indicating the event was officially scheduled for August 28-30, with the notable addition of White River Productions as a sponsor…
