This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/varail to TrainWeb.US/varail.
By Vic Stone * News for Central VA* Detours of Amtrak are the highlight of this week's happenings. ** Extra Amtrak train running to White Sulfur Springs on Friday, July 26, running about 2.5 hours ahead of P051 and returning on Sunday about 2.5 hours being P050. ** NS - Although not occurring on NS property, a derailment at the adjacent CSX right-of-way at AF Interlocking on July 21, 1996 led to several detours of Amtrak trains on Sunday & Monday. The detours of Amtrak 19, 50, and Monday's 20 proceeded via the B-Line and Riverton Jct, up the Shenandoah Valley Line to Shenandoah Jct, and then down CSX's ex-B&O main to DC. Amtrak 19 made the detour with passengers, but the other 2 trains had the passengers bussed from either Manassas or Calverton. Amtrak 50 met 19 at the N&W siding at Berryville on Sunday (it's surely been a while since passenger trains met at Berryville). Detours were made with NS road foremen on both sections of non-Amtrak qualified territory. Major maintenance projects are occurring on both the ex-Southern mainline and the ex-N&W Shenandoah Valley Line. Work trains on both lines are supplementing the track gangs which frequently have the line tied up for 6 hours at a time. Ties have been dropped on both lines and ballast tamping is also occurring on the Valley. As a result, 265 has been running off-schedule, both early and late, as well as manifest freights running later than usual. Intermodals are running close to their normal times. 341 with a notable lack of CP power on some days, is running south through Charlottesville in mid to late afternoon. Train 456 also hit & killed a person nearly in front of the Charlottesville station on Sunday. As a side note, 1 Conrail and 13 NS office cars are in Atlanta for the Centennial Olympic games. They are expected to return back north after the games have been concluded. CSX - The afore-mentioned derailment at AF Tower involved R409 and Q406 just after 12 noon on Sunday, July 21. The derailed cars from 409 hit cars off 406, which in turn hit cars on the adjacent NS sidings. By Monday morning, track #3 was open for trains, although VRE service was cancelled for the entire day. Hulcher crews from Gettysburg assisted in the cleanup of the wreck. Hazardous materials leaked from one of the tank cars as well, but was contained quickly. CSX was planning to detour R192 and L174 via the James River Line, if need be, but the track was open, so detours were not made. Meanwhile, the North Mountain itself experienced a minor derailment on Sunday night at Afton. Trains were running by the morning. Empty coal trains continue to ply the tracks. One Amtrak 50 has met 4 coal trains on the North Mountain/Washington subdivisions in the last week, with the average being 2 or so. Foreign units on CSX have diminished in the last month, with the majority visitors being Conrail or NAHX (Helm Leasing). Some maintenance is occurring around Gordonsville, but nothing such as the force that was working east a few months ago. - Vic Stone
