STEARNS, Ky. — A former Atlantic Coast Line EMD SW9 has been badly damaged in a light-engine derailment on Kentucky and Tennessee’s Big South Fork Scenic Railway.
Aerial photos on the cover of the McCreary Journal, a southern Kentucky local newspaper, reveal a badly damaged EMD SW9 No. 106 derailed and resting against a mountainside near a bend in the railroad within the Big South Fork Gorge. The newspaper’s coverage is paywalled.
Preliminary reports say the locomotive was unmanned at the time and photos indicate the locomotive was the only equipment involved. Trains News Wire has not confirmed reports the derailment was the result of a runaway incident.
The SW9 is the primary workhorse of the 14-mile scenic railway, which operates seasonal train excursions on the former Kentucky & Tennessee Railway line between Stearns, Ky., and the coal mining community of Blue Heron, Ky. Excursion trains descend 600 feet into the Big South Fork Gorge during the trip. The railroad’s operating season typically begins in April. Stearns is approximately an 80-mile drive northwest of Knoxville, Tenn.
SW9 No. 106 was built for the Atlantic Coast Line in November 1951.
Trains News Wire will update this story as more information is available.
There are plenty of sidelined switchers and even smaller HP road units (GP38’s and 40’s) around that could be leased (or gifted) to this line… Hope some owners of these units would see their way clear to help this small tourist line out while their unit is repaired, or better yet, gift them a usable locomotive that is sitting in a dead line, in working order but likely never to see use again. I know UP and BNSF (and probably CSX and NS) have hundreds of Gensets that would be a boon to this railroad but are just wasting away in deadlines around the country…