On most weekends, two to five RS3s would be used to move excess southbound (toward Norton) coal tonnage. On a June day in 1965, Extra 125 North drops downgrade at Roaring Branch, just outside Big Stone Gap, Va., on the return leg to Loyall. Southern’s Appalachia District crosses behind. Today, this is part of a recreational hiking trail.
the GE’s have 16-notch throttles to give the engineer finer control. The mine at Amru, on the Yellow Creek Branch south of Ponza, also loads unit trains for the same power plant, alternating with the Merna train. 4:32 a.m.—Extra
192 North —
192/132/160 (three RS3s), arrives off the C&M Branch at Heidrick, J.O. Mor- gan/C.B. Rees, 51-0-4590. This is one of two crews working the Cumberland & Manchester Branch, heading back to Corbin after a night’s work. 5:10 a.m.—Extra 1529 South meets Extra 484 North at Pineville. 5:25 a.m.—No. 856 departs Loyall af- ter filling out with northbound coal ton- nage and swapping units 171 and 156 for units 137 and 189. 5:55 a.m.—Extra 1529 South over- takes No. 855 and passes at Varilla. The dispatcher knows No. 855 will have work to do at Loyall, so rather than delay the following Merna train while 855 fills out with southbound coal tonnage, the through freight takes the siding to allow the unit train to go around, thus giving the latter a clear track through Loyall to arrive at the mine on time for loading. 6:10 a.m.—Southern 6719 (other
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RAILFAN.COM
units unknown) clears L&N trackage at Cumberland Gap, bound for Knoxville after working mines in Middlesboro area.
6:20 a.m.—No. 856 meets Extra 1529 South at Blackmont. 6:25 a.m.—Extra 192 North (C&M
No. 1) arrives at Corbin. 6:43 a.m.—Nos. 855 and 856 meet at Varilla.
6:45 a.m.—No. 851 arrives Lynch and begins work to swap empties for loads at the U.S. Steel mines and tipple. 7:30 a.m.—1st
trick dispatcher
Burchell Martin completes turnover from Johnstone. Martin will be dealing with more trains during his time at the desk, as well as maintenance of way, signal, B&B (bridge and building) and other workers seeking line ups in “dark” territory, or track time in the stretch of CTC. 8:45 a.m.—No. 855 departs Loyall af- ter arriving with 26-76-4160 and de- parting with 31-5-2774. Additional empty hoppers for Loyall have been picked up en route from Corbin at Felder (Blackmont). 8:15 a.m.—Extra 1529 South arrives at the siding at Glidden, breaks its train into two halves, and backs up the
branch to the flood loader at Merna to start loading. 8:30 a.m.—No. 856 arrives Corbin with 86-3-8194. 8:55 a.m.—Extra 187 South (called 7:30 a.m.) departs Middlesboro for Capito — 187 (RS3), E. Smith/S.B. Baker, 0-1-25. This is the Middlesboro- Pennington Local, that works mines on the Middlesboro Railroad Branch, a few customers along the Old CV via Cumberland Gap, and the Pennington to St. Charles Branch (via Southern trackage rights beyond Pocket). 9:00 a.m.—Extra 156 South (Clover Fork Mine Run) departs Loyall for Evarts, R.D. Lay/R.C. Yonce, 0-15-375 9:15 a.m.—No. 850 by Cumberland (same power as 851, in reverse order) with 64-0-8448 10:00 a.m.—Extra 187 North returns to Middlesboro with 4-0-300. 10:00 a.m.—Extra 129 North (Loy- all-Varilla Mine Run) departs Loyall for Puckett’s Creek Branch and Varilla, H.C. Barton/J.E. King, cab lite (but picks up 35 empty hoppers at Felder storage track, Blackmont) 10:30 a.m.—Work Extra 171 (Mar- tin’s Fork Mine Run) departs Loyall for Crummies, H.B. Sears/C.C. King, 0-24-
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