A SD40 / F7B / GP38 trio shove on the rear of a southbound loaded coal train at Spruce Pine, NC in 1970.

Northbound local through Spruce Pine in the summer of 1970.

A empty CSX coal train snakes its way through downtown Spruce Pine as the evening sun hits the train.

The Spruce Pine shifter spends a lonely night by the rough looking depot as an empty hopper train plunges into the Toe River Gorge. As a personal aside, this is my first photo processed from a RAW... (more)

Classic cars and a classic GP40-2 complete the scene at Spruce Pine.

The clouds finally open up just as an empty coal train makes its way into the lovely town of Spruce Pine on the well engineered Clinchfield Railroad.

An unknown coal train passes through downtown Spruce Pine on Memorial Day 2009, as a classic car show goes on down the main street.

CSX SD40-2 8404 leads a northbound train through Spruce Pine, NC on the Blue Ridge Subdivision.

CSX SD50 8627 leads a ballast train northbound into Spruce Pine. Click Here to see a video of this train.

U23B 9550 sitting in the siding at Spruce Pine, NC on a work train.

CSX 4789 meets a northbound at Toe River.

CSX 4789 exits Vance Tunnel after meeting a northbound at Toe River.

A thick early morning bank of fog sits heavily over the valley as a coal drag breaks the silence of downtown Spruce Pine passing a hi-railer and the Spruce Pine local engine by the depot.

With the resident code line pole providing a frame, CSX 729 leads an empty northbound hopper train as it leans into the curve just north of Toe River siding on the south end of the former Clinchfi... (more)