railfan.com/railnews Coal Traffi c Update
During June, NS has resumed coal de- liveries to the R.D. Morrow, Sr. Gener- ating Plant, the power station owned and operated by the South Mississippi Electric Power Association near Purvis, Miss.. NS had last delivered coal to Pur- vis earlier in the winter from Sidney, Ky. During late June, the utility released its one set of SMEX hoppers from storage and loaded them at Apex Energy’s mine at Biggs, Ky., on June 30. Train 730 is the designation for Purvis loads, while empties operate as Train 731. The Kopper Glo Fuels tipple on the
Jellico Branch north of Knoxville, Tenn., has not loaded a utility train since March. This mine had been loading a weekly unit train routed via NS to South Carolina Electric & Gas’s Wateree, S.C., generating plant via Knoxville, Ashe- ville, and Salisbury, N.C. However, this mine enjoys dual railroad access, and SCE&G has apparently been routing its coal once again via CSX instead of NS. Kopper Glo did route via NS a train of industrial coal destined to two cement plants during April. As of July, the only coal NS is getting off the Jellico Branch is from a truck-dump facility south of Jellico at Newcomb. A local out of Clin- ton, Tenn., works this tipple a couple times per week. There is some good news to report
for coal loadings on NS’s beleaguered Pocahontas Division. Bluestone Resources has announced plans to reopen two of its West Virginia mines that had been idle for more than a year. The Coal Mountain complex in Wyoming County is located on the Cub Creek Branch, which is several miles east of Gilbert. Further south in McDowell County, the
New Life for ex-SP Oakland Station
The iconic Southern Pacifi c 16th Street Station in Oakland, Calif., may be in for a second life as a historic landmark. Built in 1912 and abandoned in 2002 (due to seismic instability and railroad re-alignment), the building is the property of the nonprofi t BRIDGE Housing, which is developing plans for the station in partnership with RAILS (Restoration Association for Improving the Landmark 16th Street Station). As fi nancing is secured the station will be restored in a phased approach. The elevated structure carried SP’s Interurban Electric Railway trains until 1941.
PHOTO BY CHARLES FREERICKS
Red Fox mine complex is located on the Jacobs Fork Branch near Bishop. The Coal Mountain operation is expected to produce 150,000 tons per month of thermal and high-volatile metallurgical coal, while the Red Fox site is expected to produce 80,000 tons per month of medium-volatile metallurgical coal.
Bristol Line Investment
The siding extension project at Glade Spring, Va., was nearing completion as of July 1, and it should be in service by early August. NS crews and contractors have been working for several months to extend the existing 6440-foot siding westward by 5400 feet. The control point at the west end of the siding will likely retain its designation as “Washington.” With the extended siding being more
than two miles in length, it will be a welcome improvement for dispatchers handling traffic over the 109 miles of the Virginia Division’s Pulaski District between Walton and Bristol, Va. In addition to the short segment of dou- ble-track at Radford, there are seven signaled sidings on the district east of Bristol. However, the 9020-foot siding at Crockett has been the only one of con- siderable length for contemporary-sized trains, with the other six ranging from 3743 feet at Abingdon to 6440 feet at Glade Spring. With the extension of Glade Spring, dispatchers will now have a longer siding positioned in the 49-mile stretch between Crockett and Bristol. An average of four manifest trains, four intermodal trains, and one automotive train traverse the route daily, plus lo- cals and occasional extras. Several of the sidings still feature the N&W’s distinc-
tive color position light signals, although projects such as the one at Glade Spring are thinning their numbers.
Operations
Recent changes in the carload network have seen Train 198 changed from a New Orleans, La.-Sheffield, Ala., sched- ule to a New Orleans-Macon, Ga., train. Its schedule out of New Orleans’s Oliver Yard remains unchanged, with a late af- ternoon departure. On its revised route east of Birmingham, it departs that crew change point at 9:00 a.m. and is due into Macon by 2:00 the next morning. Along this same former Central of Georgia route, NS has abolished Train 136 be- tween Birmingham and Macon. With the shift of Train 198 off of the
NA District between Birmingham and Sheffield, only three manifest trains re- main on that route. These include Trains 320 (Sheffield-Birmingham) and coun- terpart 329 (Birmingham-Sheffield). Train 355 is still routed via the NA as a Sheffield-New Orleans schedule. It han- dles mostly LPG tank car traffic destined to the underground gas storage facilities surrounding Hattiesburg, Miss. Automotive Train 28N has been
added on the Southern Tier route. It is scheduled to operate daily from the Fostoria, Ohio, automotive mixing center and is destined to the Mechanicville, N.Y., auto terminal. Automotive Train 29E has also been operating as-needed from Cleveland to Detroit. It works the Airline Junction auto facility at Toledo en route. A new Train 22D has also been operating sporadically, handling multilevel autoracks from St. Louis to Kansas City.
11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68