This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/eastpenn to TrainWeb.US/eastpenn.

OCS SCHEDULES

Conrail's OCS is on the return portion of their East Coast tour.  The train departed Miami, FL this morning and heads north to interchange with Conrail. The train returns to Conrail on April 19 and returns to Altoona without making the previously scheduled trip to Selkirk, Buffalo, and Conway.  Click HERE to see the ENTIRE schedule.  - Kevin Burkholder

COAL MINE CLOSURE SHIFTS TRAFFIC PATTERNS

Arch Coal has closed the Lynch No.3 Complex located at Cumberland in Harlan county, Kentucky effective at the end of March. Arch had closed the vast No.37 underground mine but had planned to continue utilizing the on-site modern cleaning plant to process contractor-mined coal.  The closure has had an enormous impact on traffic patterns over the former L&N's Cumberland Valley Subdivision through both Corbin and along the NS's Bull Gap line to Frisco, TN.  Up until March, CSX had 22 scheduled unit trains operating from Lynch averaging two trains per day.  The effected trains are as follows:

N104 (Lynch 3-Power Park) Jacksonville Utilities
N108 (Lynch 3-Crystal River) Florida Power
N109 (Lynch 3-Crystal River) Florida Power
N274 (Lynch 3-Stilesboro) Georgia Power
N299 (Lynch 3-Bull Run) TVA-Bull Run Steam Plant
N801 (Lynch 3-Toledo) Detroit Edison
T233 (Lynch 3-Harriman) TVA-Kingston Steam Plant
U260 (Lynch 3-Jac Mac) Georgia Power
U296 (Lynch 3-Mitchell) Georgia Power
U324 (Lynch 3-Cross) Santee Cooper
U352 (Lynch 3-Pennyroyal) Santee Cooper
U353 (Lynch 3-Pennyroyal) Santee Cooper
U387 (Lynch 3-Rincon) Savannah Electric
U587 (Lynch 3-Riverport) Ohio River loading
U903 (Lynch 3-Gary) USX Corporation
U904 (Lynch 3-Gary) USX Corporation
V309 (Lynch 3-Brice) Duke Power
V346 (Lynch 3-Pelzer) Duke Power
V348 (Lynch 3-Pelzer) Duke Power
V398 (Lynch 3-Riverbend) Duke Power
V603 (Lynch 3-Rocky Mount) Cogentrix
V653 (Lynch 3-Wilimington) Carolina Power & Light
-Robby Vaughn
 
ARCH WILL OPEN NEW MINE

Arch has announced plans to expand mining operations associated with the Monclo Complex near Sharples
in Logan county, WV.  Monclo loaded over 6 million tons onto CSX trains in 1997 with the expansion pushing the expected capacity to the 10 million ton mark for 1999.  Coal processed at Monclo comes from the 2,500
acre former Dal-Tex surface mine now operated by Arch's Hobet Mining subsidiary.  A.T. Massey had attempted to open up 70 million tons of nearby coal reserves several years ago and install new underground mines but came under heavy protest by not only area residents but also oddly enough the United Mine Workers.  It seems these reserves lie under infamous Blair Mountain which has been sort of an unofficial shrine to union miners since the 1920's.  During September 1921, the mountain was the site of the bloodiest battle on American soil since the Civil War.  All out war raged between 10,000 union miners attempting to organize mines in the Guyandotte River Valley and 5,000 well-armed mine guards hired by coal operators (including the Logan county sheriff) who wanted no part of the UMW.  Skirmishes and intense fire fights went on for days until federal troops were call in after marshall law was declared in the valley.  Massey and the UMW squared off in early 1991 and eventually had to shelve plans for a new processing complex that would have supplied CSX with about 3-million tons annually.  In what would have been known as Aracoma, the new facility was intended to be located near Peach Creek Yard on the Logan Subdivision and provide up to 400 additional jobs for area miners.  After extensive talks, the UMW entered an agreement with Dal-Tex in September 1991 which gave them the go ahead to surface mine Blair Mountain but kept the pressure on Massey for unknown reasons.  Massey had even offered to construct a million-dollar park and monument
honoring those killed in 1921 but the offer fell on deaf ears.  Arch purchased Dal-Tex the following year and now plans to exploit these rights and provide CSX with increased tonnage on the Coal River Subdivision in the near future. -Robby Vaughn

  NEW KENTUCKY PROCESSING FACILITY

On April 1st, ground was broken in Corbin, Ky for a new coal processing facility on property adjacent to the former US Steel (Arch Coal) wash plant.  This site will extract usable coal from 40 years worth of coal refuse in the vast slate dump (the largest dump in the state) sitting along CSX's East Yard in Corbin.  US Steel had constructed the coal washer at Corbin to clean raw coal flowing from mines near Lynch some 90 miles to the east on the CV Subdivision.  Arch Mineral purchased the property from US Steel in 1984, constructed a new processing plant at Cumberland and closed the Corbin plant in 1995.  Since the Corbin plant was constructed in 1945, coal cleaning technology has advanced such that much higher levels of usable coal may be extracted from what in the past was discarded as refuse.  Recovery estimates vary but all agree there are
millions of tons of usable coal just sitting on the ground waiting to be had.  It's still unclear, however, demolition of the old Corbin plant did not include the concrete storage silos or the flood loading structures
which could be placed back in operation and used to fast-load railcars in the near future. -Robby Vaughn

NEW COAL TRAFFIC TO WISCONSIN CENTRAL

The WC will start getting coal trains off the NS at Calumet yd. in Chicago going to Green Bay (C. Reiss). They load at Gund,KY on the NS.  The WC will supply one set of hoppers approx 80-100 cars and the NS will supply power in the form of two SD70s or two Dash 9's. The first empty train was delivered to the NS yesterday.

WC symbols for this will will be NSGBC westbound and GBNSX eastbound.  NS for now is calling them Z98. This is new business and if transit time are agreeable to customer, this could mean additional business for the WC. -Ray Weart

RADIO FREQUENCY CHANGES

Effective 07:00 ET on April 17, East Binghamton yard operations are now conducted on Channel 28-28 (160.530 mhz), and all brake tests will be performed on channel 91-91 (161.475 mhz).

Other frequencies remain unchanged. -Mike Collins

Please check this location daily, as new information will be posted, as it becomes available. If you have news to report or information regarding railroads in the Eastern United States, please send e-mail to Kevin Burkholder at KBurkholder@psghs.edu