Work train picking up ties and trees has just cleared Ought-One on Main 1 and will head to Glen Alum after traffic gets by. It is obvious that Main 1 is used for grain trains heading east.
With a broken down unit on the other end being worked on and flagged with caution tape, NS 9868 idles under the Beech Creek signals on the Pocahontas Division.
Daily regular 17M leans into a sharp curve on the Pokey close to where WV, KY, and VA come together. The rugged stretch abounds in rock slide detector fences every few hundred yards.
Westbound coal drag and mine shifter U24 passes the high rock bluffs at remote Alnwick along the Tug Fork river. For brave souls, this area abounds in natural beauty and coal drag after coal drag.
Passing over Peter Creek, U15 backs up to Jamboree and the Majestic Collieries coal loadout for the second unit train in two days. A caboose is on the "head" leading the backup move.
An ancient GP38AC prepares to leave the small yard on the Lenor Branch to do MOW ditchwork. This won't be the only work on the main as nothing was moving on the mainline for hours.
An old N&W shield or insignia on the remote Wolf Creek Branch of the Pocahontas. Built late in RR terms, the branch still sees a couple of coal moves per day out of Martin County to the WV line.
A flurry of blooming redbuds give blazing color to the WV hills along the Pokey as an mty coal drag passes the Thacker Signal Department. The symbol will turn into U15 moments later as the train h... (more)
Work train 97J has the brakeman set the switch as it idles out to the Pokey main to do ditch work, caboose and all. The Pokey was slow the first half of the day with work going on from one end to ... (more)
Dwarf signal where the Gilbert Branch turns off the Pocahontas main. A Luna moth has an attraction to the red lens for some reason!
With a colossal coal silo looming overhead, a sparkling GE ES40DC goes about work in the coalfields of Tennessee.
With remnants of the old tipple behind and the coal stockpile hovering overhead, 76G idles downgrade while being loaded seven cars at a time.
National Coal uses three wheel loaders to load a unit train in under six hours. The three engines are idling downgrade beyond the coal silo which has been abandoned.
Crew change on the Jellico Branch. A very "friendly" crew mounts their horse as the redbuds announce the beginning of Spring in the mountains.
Defect detector shed is of the old style, with most replaced a couple of years ago on the KD.
