The conductor on Kopper Glo mine run 787 steps off the train before a cut of empties is shoved through the loadout before being filled with black diamonds.

NS mine run 787 begins loading coal at Kopper Glo's loadout in Clairfield, Tennessee. This is the last active loadout in the state, and it merely hangs on by a thread.

Trains don't come 'round here no more... The greens of Summer are slowly reclaiming the upper stretch of the Clearfork Branch, which once hosted three coal loadouts and almost daily traffic up int... (more)

Fire and Brimstone... heating the rails with a copious amount of coal and diesel fuel. With sledge hammer in hand, the hot rail is slowly knocked into place on a curved stretch crossing Straight C... (more)

Using a pry bar, sledgehammer, and alot of muscle, the loadout crew closes a few open discharge doors before coal can be loaded.

With the loadout silo towering above, two more hoppers will be loaded before the long circuitous journey back to John Sevier Yard begins. Kopper Glo coal loadout, Straight Creek spur of the Clearf... (more)

Backing thru the coal loadout, a DPU unit on the rear makes room for the string of hoppers to soon be loaded at Kopper Glo. The train will cross CSX trackage for a few miles, then go thru Jellico ... (more)

Skywalking. Looking down from atop Kopper Glo's massive 8,000 ton storage and loadout silo, NS backs mtys up the hemlock shrouded steep grade in preparation for loading coal. The large prep plant ... (more)

Power awaits duty as the massive coal storage silo hovers overhead. The silo holds 8,000 tons of coal and will need filling by the overhead beltline before a whole unit train can be loaded. Photo ... (more)

Preparing to load a unit train at Kopper Glo off the Clearfork Branch, NS spots mtys under the 200 foot tall coal loadout silo which holds about 8,000 tons of cleaned and prepped coal. They load i... (more)

Let the loading begin. With 8,000 tons of coal above our heads, the first mpty is loaded from the control room at the Kopper Glo prep plant.

With an original blue-gray 7588 unit three back, a faded Dash 8 backs the second cut of mtys up toward the coal loadout on Straight Creek.

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.

CSX minerun U466 crosses Straight Creek just a few hundred yards from the Kopper Glo loadout, where it'll take over six hours to load a unit train destined for Georgia Power. The train has travele... (more)

CSX 77G loading at the Kopper Glo coal silo on Straight Creek, with two other engines after backing a string of mtys up the grade.