ABOVE: On Friday, February 9, 1968, “Day Lynch” (train 853) has
the reached its
destination at the huge U.S. Steel complex at Lynch, Ky. The steel company used the GE 70- tonner to load its coal hoppers, since it was all downhill. In consideration of the steep grade, a “brake sled” made from an ex-Pere Marquette 2-8-2 tender cut down and filled with concrete was used. The tender’s brakes were linked to the GE’s engine brake, or “in- dependent.” This gave the U.S. Steel engineer 20 wheels with brakeshoes rather than eight. LEFT: Dorchester Junction, Va., just two miles from Norton, was
the interchange point
between the L&N and short line Interstate Railroad. The IRR handled L&N-Clinchfield in- terchange traffic between this point and Miller Yard, Va. On May 10, 1967, an Interstate “hill crew” waits for train 66 to pass. Once the L&N freight has cleared, the IRR will pick up the interchange traffic left earlier by L&N train 55.
11:30 p.m.—3rd trick dispatcher
W.A. Horn, Jr., assumes control of the railroad from Ross as the CV prepares for a new day. Saturday will be light as the mine runs take a rest for the week- end, but the trains still roll...
Epilogue
The Cumberland Valley Division was a modestly busy piece of railroad in 1969, but coal traffic was on the rise. By the mid-1970s, the demand of ther- mal coal in the Southeast would bring an onslaught of unit coal trains. The number of smaller mines would decline as the days of loose car shipments fad-
ed in favor of more flood load facilities feeding 72- and then 90-car unit trains. By 1980 some double track would be reinstalled outside of Corbin and around Blackmont to better handle the traffic surge. The right fork of the Straight Creek Branch would also be extended to reach new mines near the base of Pine Mountain. Also,
direct dispatcher to
train block authority issued over the ra- dio would replace the old timetable/train order system in the many miles of track- age not under CTC control. Motive
power would continue to
evolve, with the last of the RS3s gone in 1974, as well as the occasional F-units,
largely replaced by L&N’s huge fleet of C420s, mostly acquired through merg- er and acquisition from other lines. Six- motor power would continue to domi- nate on the unit trains. After first being absorbed into the Knoxville Division in 1970, the CV would soon become a subdivision of the new Corbin Division. And finally, the L&N itself would vanish as a company at the end of 1982, one of so many casu- alties of the merger movement that erased a colorful and diverse period in American railroading. In railroading as in everything else in life, nothing lasts forever.
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