Gone and Forgotten
Sitting quietly deep in the Cumberland Hollars lost in time is this vintage ex: Reading Railroad ALCO RS-3 now in the faded Southern Green, and White, and two passenger cars that was once own by the New River Scenic Railway, that ran on the now abandon New River Railway Branch. We are at the south-end of the branch sitting behind the idle (now closed) Premium Coal Companies (TCMC) Mine in Briceville,TN. This line its still own by Norfolk Southern, but could you only imagine that 4 plus years ago this was a bee hive of action where 4,000 tons of Cumberland Plateau Coal was pulled from the deep mines and surface pits delivered by truck, and rails. As time went on and coal was slowly beginning to make a decline a small organization known as the New River Scenic Railway formed,lease the line, and ran tourist operation til about 2008-2009 and went under due to a fire at the New River Scenic Railway home office, and depot which killed the organization, and eventually led to the state absorbing the organization, and assets. Years after RJ Corman lease the line til 2013 when the Premium Coal Companies (TCMC) Mine went under, and the lease wasn't renewed by RJ Corman from NS. Today the Branch, the mines, and its history is fading away by the years, and the only example of this line that was being used at one point is these abandon equipment that once belong to and organization that doesn't exist.
