BELOW: Norton to Corbin through freight 66 (later 864) is departing the famous Hagans switchback at Smiley, Va., behind a U25C and two SD35s on October 16, 1965. The train will momentarily enter 6,244-foot Hagans Tunnel — longest on the L&N system. BOTTOM: On Christmas Eve 1967, train 864 is pushing 50 m.p.h. through Big Stone Gap, Va., behind a mix of EMD and Alco power. The battered roadbed and 100-pound jointed steel here will soon be upgraded with fresh ballast, new ties, surfacing and 132-pound welded rail.
sued orders to allow such trains (usual- ly mine runs) to work within specific limits and within a specific time period, regardless of direction of travel. They might or might not be relieved of pro- tecting against other trains, by train order. The CV was basically a sched- uled railroad with trains running on or near predictable times. Whether a train operated by scheduled number or as an extra was the dispatcher’s choice, based on expected running times or other circumstances. A train’s schedule “died” after 12 hours on any given day.
All locomotives in the consist are shown, with their model type shown in parenthesis. While it might not be of in- terest to most readers, the assigned en- gineer (listed first) and conductor are shown for each run. Last is the consist, expressed as loads-empties-tons (i.e., 26-76-4160). Notes in italics add any additional information that might be of interest. Not all meets are shown, since many of them took place through timetable/train order operational rules rather than defined meets by train order, and thus known only to the train crews. Obviously the CV was dominated by a single commodity: coal. Most of the mine runs were five day a week jobs (normally Monday-Friday). There was some overhead general merchandise traffic handled by the two pairs of Corbin-Norton “fast freights” (as they were listed in the time card), but they also handled quite a bit of coal. This was still the loose car era, and few coal movements were made by unit train. In fact, there were 70 individual mine loading points on the CV in 1969, and most mine runs worked several mines each day, placing a few empties and pulling a like number of loads at each tipple needing service.
The principal motive power on the CV in 1969 was the Alco RS3, all in the 100-series. While there weren’t many this day, EMD F-units or GP7s and GP9s were also common on through trains. The L&N had rostered six-mo- tor power since 1964, so by 1969, Alco
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