Clifton Forge COHS - Fall 2012
Rail Fan Adventure --
Elk Run Jct. yard at Whitesville, WV was rather quiet on 10-4-12. Locomotives outnumber vehicles parked at the yard office. Eastbounds headed by 656 and 330 are in the yard. That’s a power assisted switch on the right foreground.
1. At a distance
2. Close up.
3. I heard a conversation on the scanner that indicated an eastbound was coming up the river. I headed west a few miles to the east end of Crown Siding, the first passing siding west of Elk Run. It is also equipped with power assisted switches. CSX 621-346 soon rolled through toting E506-03’s 100 empties.
4. This view at the west end of Elk Run Jct. yard shows the old coal dock where the engine terminal used to be located. Massey Coal (now Alpha Natural Resources) built a conveyor across the valley and the yard to utilize their nearby Elk Run Coal preparation plant.
5. Elk Run Jct. yard is not very large...just a few long sidings.
6. E506-03 enters the yard and quickly ducks behind a string of empties.
7. Early on the morning of 10-5-12 westbound empty train E597-29 behind 5464-4576 approaches JD Cabin at the east end of Clifton Forge.
8. E597-29 gets a red signal at JD Cabin but soon proceeds west to the fuel pad after a train ahead clears.
9. Westbound single stack train Q135-04 gets serviced as 91-5366 off Q130-04 pull in to get attention. 10-5-12
10. Fuel pad personnel clean the windshield on 4780! You don’t get that at an automobile gas station anymore!
11. Q130-04’s engines have been serviced and the single stack train is leaving town. 10 m.p.h. through the fuel pad.
12. View # 2.
13. Q135-04 westbound now leaves for Russell.
14. SD70MAC 4780 leads 668-5322-6234 on Q135-04 as they pick up speed at Low Moor.
15. The next morning, 10-6-12, I shot L136-05 (“L” denotes an alternate schedule or train makeup) eastbound behind 5452-5225 at “Chestnut Street” in Covington.
Unfortunately these intermodal trains were recently routed back to the RF&P/B&O, as the “Capitol Corridor” clearance improvement project is done.
Train images used by permission of Everett N Young
last update - 22 Oct 2013