Two Fairbanks-Morse diesels cross a bridge at Slab Fork, W.Va., in the 1950s in a photo by FM’s company photographer. Collection of Lewis A. Harlow […]
Virginian riding high
Zone & Region: Appalachia
Next Stop: Petersburg
Norfolk Southern Crewe-to-Hopewell turn V-11 arrives at Petersburg Yard in Virginia before making a set off on May 11, 2012. Photo by Michael S. Murray […]
High hopes but no luck
In high hopes of increased coal traffic, West Virginia’s Middle Fork Railroad in the early 1960s laid heavier rail on its main line. Some of that rail waits in gons while a loaded coal train moves past at Ellamore, W.Va. Alas, the traffic never materialized. Photo by J. Michael Dunn III […]
Grade profiles of the Pocahontas coal roads
Compared here are the main lines of railroads that, for most of the 20th century, fed the nation with its most important natural resource: bituminous coal mined in Appalachia — the critical ingredient in power plants, steel mills, home furnaces, and factories. In 1927, the year of our comparison, the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk […]
Previewing a future that never was
Townspeople of South Charleston, W.Va., inspect C&O 500, first of the road’s trio of colossal steam-electric-turbine locomotives intended for its new Chessie train, on Dec. 4, 1947. Ogden Willis, William J. Sparkmon coll. When Robert R. Young took over control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, he started looking for ways to improve the railroad. After […]
Mix-up on the Ripley Mixed
B&O men pose with Baldwin switcher 428, the first diesel on the mixed train to Ripley, W.Va., in late 1953. Six years later, a sister Baldwin took a hard hit on the same job. F. Altizer It was dark and cold on the night of January 4, 1960, when Baltimore & Ohio train 961 arrived […]
Railroads and their environment
FULL SCREEN Photo by Kevin Scanlon CSX power for the Piney Creek Turn is parked in Quinnimont Yard in Quinnimont, W.V., on Jan. 20, 1991. To the left of the engines across the tracks is the foundation for the iron furnace. FULL SCREEN Photo by Kevin Scanlon A CSX westbound empty hopper train passes the […]
Green, gold, and gorgeous!
Southern Railway 2-8-2 No. 4501 pulls a National Railway Historical Society convention train on Sept. 5, 1966 from Keysville, Va., to Richmond, Va. This was among the first excursions that led to the development of Southern Railway’s famous series of annual excursions that ran between 1966 and 1994. Today, the 1911 Baldwin is under restoration […]
End of the Line
N&W’s eastbound Pocahontas descends Christiansburg Hill toward Roanoke on April 21, 1971 – ten days before Amtrak. J. David Ingles The air was chilly and damp as I stood beneath the eaves of the weather-beaten depot in Lynchburg, Va. I was waiting for the train that would take me back to Cincinnati one last time. […]
Serving the South once again
Click the image to download this interactive PDF. It ’s not likely that Trains readers would immediately recognize the significance of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. However, the ETV&G (whose earliest ancestor lines date to 1856) merged with the Richmond & Danville in 1894 to create a more recognizable company name: Southern Railway. […]
Diesels invade N&W’s Blue Ridge Grade
Jim Shaughnessy Geeps at Boaz – 1 Framed by a waiting Y6 and the siding shanty, five N&W GP9’s pass the Blue Ridge Grade helper siding at Boaz, Va., with a westbound boxcar train in August 1958. Jim Shaughnessy Geeps at Boaz – 2 Another August 1958 photo finds three GP9’s bringing a merchandise train […]
Key C&O facilities
To handle maintenance and repairs on its substantial hopper-car fleet, coal-hauler Chesapeake & Ohio in 1930 built this systemwide freight-car shop at Raceland, Ky., at the west end of its massive Russell Yard, a facility built to classify coal cars moving west to Cincinnati and Chicago, as well as north to Lake Erie docks for […]
