About as far away from the CSX mainline as you can get in the backwoods of southern West Virginia, an empty coal train led by CSXT 3133 navigates sharp curves, thick fog, and tight clearances through the coal town of Omar. The train is headed to Holden Mine on CSX's Pine Creek Subdivision, a C&O branch line feeding into the railroad's Logan & Southern, and eventually, the Logan Subdivision near Peach Creek in Logan. These obscure lines are home to local coal traffic and on this summer night in the coalfields of West Virginia, there's 110 cars of coal to load at a soon-to-be busy coal mine in the backwoods of Logan County, West Virginia. And these coal communities, like Omar, wouldn't want it any other way.
Landscape photography is difficult due to the challenge of combining good light and good scenery. Good railroad photography enters another level of complexity since it requires the first two while there is a train in view.
