Pulling a gaggle of seven engines including an SD50, SD60M, Dash 8, MP15DC, and a B36-7, the hillhelper powers up in a rare move to pull Q540 north over Duff Mountain.

On a cold and drizzly March day, U258 loads at the Kopper Glo loadout on the Clearfork Branch. A rusty wheeled mty broken down from several weeks prior sits on the siding.

The Chaska hillhelper conductor waves the engineer back to Q540 in a rare northbound pull over the mountain. Mty coal drag N276 awaits a clear signal north.

As mtys head toward Auville Yard and the plentiful coal branches, grain train 52V stretches around the corner. The move will require a pusher set to make it up Elkhorn Grade today.

Stretched over the hump as the sun sets in the west, the ever present coal drag waits along with a grain train for the journey east.

With only seconds left before the Tug Fork valley is in the shadows, pusher set J5J shoves coal drag 890 east toward Auville Yard and Iaeger.

Mine run U22 runs long hood forward on a trip to the Keystone preparation plant. The massive coaling tower dwarfing the engine is a holdout from the old N&W steam days.

In what earlier had been grain train 52V on the Pokey, crews tie the grain hoppers down and prepare to move a loaded coal train east out of Yards. The head engine is sitting literally on the WV/VA... (more)

Grain train 52V heads east thru what once was the thriving town of Davy, now reduced to rubble and burned out buildings on mainstreet.

Westbound 17M has just exited Cooper Tunnel and will soon be entering Elkhorn Tunnel in a mile or so.

Typical of the Pokey, grain train 52V pops out of beautifully named Laurel Tunnel and immediately crosses a bridge.

With coal drag 824 coming off the Buchanan Branch, helper set J5J idles on Main #2 and will soon head east to push coal drag 890 to Auville and on to the Dry Fork Branch.

Having just left a little slice of Pike County, KY, fast freight 18M hits WV soil again and the first rays of early morning sun in the Tug Fork Valley.

An ex-CR unit pops out of the east portal of Glen Alum tunnel while following the many curves of the Tug Fork river and valley on the Pokey.

Showing the tight confines of Appalachia where houses, rails, and roadways share the valley bottoms, NS 2771 has just left Dismal Yard headed to Weller.