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CSX, West Virginia Style

I grew up in the hills of West Virginia, along the C&O main and Coal River sub, so these are my old stompin' grounds. Coal is the life blood of the Mountain State, and CSX hauls a big ol' bunch of it. I've made several trips in this area and never get tired of it. I think Bil Lepp, a West Virginia minister, author, and repeat winner of the state liar's contest best describes it (Bil, I hope you don't mind me reproducing your words here):

"Then, up ahead of me, I saw two parallel bars of steel shining in the moonlight. I knew I wasn't lost no more. I could tell by the proud sheen on those bars that they could be nothing but railroad tracks, Weirton's world-famous steel fashioned into CS&X railroad tracks, at that....and when I looked down the track, I saw a big light coming at me. Then I heard that low rumble and that deep whistle blow. The noise was shaking the rhododendron blooms and knocking cardinals out of their nests. I knew all that racket could be none other than six engines pulling a 168-car CS&X Monster Train loaded down with 19,364 tons of pure West Virginia bituminous coal."

1. On the west end of St. Albans, the C&O main crosses the Coal River on this truss bridge.
2. Just outside of St. Albans, a wide-nose GE blasts out of Tunnel #2 on the Coal River Sub.
3. CNW power leads empty hoppers into a siding on the Coal River Sub.
4. A CSX Dash 8 passes a barn on a gray December day near St. Albans, WV.
5. Deep in Southern WV, on the Coal River Sub, 7857 has charge of a loaded coal train near Elk Run Jct.
6. The cars of the same train cross the Big Coal River.
7. At Danville, WV a CSX bay window caboose awaits its next assignment (CSX no longer uses cabooses on the Coal River Sub)
8. One of Peabody Coal's many mines, down the line from Danville.
9. Hoppers fill the small yard in Cowen, WV on a dreary Sunday afternoon.
10. Ten miles to the north, an SD70 has charge of a mine job near Erbacon, WV.
11. On the last day of 1999, Amtrak #50, the eastbound Cardinal rolls under the C&O signals in St. Albans.
12. Back in the days of F40's, the Cardinal rolls through the other end of town.
13. For many years, ex-NKP 765 brought the New River Train through the Gorge for two weekends in October.
14. Alas, it runs no more, but she was certainly a grand sight on a crsip October morning.