ABOVE: Coal loads have just left Paris as they are about to cross Scott Avenue on October 15, 2015. RIGHT: “Executive” painted B36-7 No. 5815 passes the restored former Louisville & Nashville depot in Ewing on September 17, 2015. The former L&N branch was purchased by the TTI partners in 1979. old


OPPOSITE: An tobacco drying barn near Flemingsburg


Junction provides the backdrop for a TTI run to Maysville on October 21, 2015


river. It proved to be both economical and time-saving for the big utilities to use TTI to bridge traffic quickly from the low-sulfur coal fields in eastern Kentucky. Together with their sister company Transcontinental Terminals, trains are offloaded to barges that head down the Ohio River to create more competitive rates than using trucks to haul coal to the Big Sandy River. In 1991 CSX purchased the railroad through its subsidiary Carrollton Railroad and has


42 JANUARY 2016 • RAILFAN.COM


kept TTI as an autonomous shortline “partner.” This situation has remained to this day, thanks to the fine work TTI’s employees have done to remain profitable and independent. Finding anything moving on TTI’s 50-plus mile line was not an easy task in recent years. The company had suffered a similar fate as other railroads dependent on the coal market and saw only a few train movements per month. Even in the internet age it proved to be


a difficult task finding out when or if the railroad would run. The situation started to turn around


in 2015 when coal from the CSX EK (Eastern Kentucky) Subdivision began to be routed over TTI’s track on a more consistent basis. Additionally, loaded limestone trains used in power plants to remove sulfur emissions began to run from the limestone quarry located west of Sinks, Ky., on the former L&N Lebanon branch. This meant that


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