Photograph copyright George Nydegger and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
I am proposing this route as a CSX route, this line has a history and an exciting one at that.
This route was a part of the Clinchfield Railroad but in the mid-70s it became a part of the Family Lines System made up of the Clinchfield, SCL L&N and other smaller railroads. In 1986 the Chessie System and Seaboard merged becoming the Chessie Seaboard Merger, or CSM. Lawyers then replaced the M with an X, initially the X had no meaning until someone came up with Xpress and due to X appearing at the end of leasing companies marking. Finally a T was added and the new name was Chessie Seaboard Xpress Transportation or CSXT for short.
The CSXs main traffic was coal, manifest, grain and intermodal whereas larger Class 1s had a vast array of intermodal customers with the BN running from Chicago to Tacoma, Seattle and Santa Fe running for Long Beach, Oakland, Stockton to Chicago. UP was running from ports in Texas, Chicago west coast ports from Oakland to Chicago. Even the SP had an intermodal service and now the BNSF have some of the largest intermodal names on their trains. The NS had good intermodal service and by partnering up with UP/BNSF and KCS it could provide a one stop shop. The CSX on the other hand has a partnership with UP and has its own containers with UMAX and CSX containers but due to its roots they stuck with what they knew but now has caught up with them.
After 1996/97, the railroad map changed and the SP had been consumed by the UP. With the SP now merged with the UP, it allowed them access to Tehachapi southern California and that opened more doors for them.
In 1997 the BN SF merger was a well suited merger with the BN being more of a manifest train/autorack/intermodal handle but more importantly it would have grain and coal merging that with Santa Fe's intermodal side although they handled coal & it wasn’t nowhere near that of the BN and with both railroads purchasing a lot of new power they went into the most successful merger and the railroad map changed with trackage rights changing the playing field.
However the CSX lacked a lot of this traffic being stuck in Appalachians and coal is how they made their money, this line is a key factor with Spartanburg with South Carolina being a gateway to Florida it could run manifests across this route and it did but in 2012 when coal started dropping the CSX turned their had to more commodity train - ethanol and oil although this route didn’t ever these trains.
This route from Catlettsburg to Spartanburg mainly saw Coal grain and manifest traffic and a few steel trains, on a very rare occasion bare table trains. There is aloes manned helpers still on this route but DPU technology has taken over, but manned helpers are still needed.
The subdivisions on this route are:
- BIG Sand sub - Catlettsburg to Elkhorn City
- Kingsport Sub - Elkhorn city to Erwin Tennessee
- Erwin terminal sub is the yard and locomotive facility
- Blue Ridge Sub - Erwin to Spartanburg
Made of 3 subdivisions this route has plenty to offer from 90 car grain trains with 4 SD70MACs to a heavy 18,000 ton coal trains with 3 ACs in Notch 8 also with helpers to the rear, or being the helper crew pushing the train up the hill and uncoupling on the go or taking a heavy Q601 with 2 ACs front and manned helpers on the rear but doing 1.2 mph with the sanders on and the amp metre in the red.
This route offers the player many things to do from heavy underpowered manifest, coal trains or even taking one of the monster 130 or 220+ car coal trains up and over these subs with heavy ES44AH C44WH or the big 6,000 horsepower units. These trains would challenge everyone with 4 units 2x2 with mid train DPUs and 2 manned helpers on the rear with a total of 22000 horsepower, sanders on release the brakes and it’s show time as a 28,000 ton coal train begins a 2.2% climb.
However the sounds of hard working diesels will not be heard again on two of these subs the Kingsport and Blue Ridge subs are now closed.
On the 15th October 2015 CSX closed this route down (Elkhorn City to Spartanburg), the line had lived through many of its own troubles and got to see the golden age of railroading from steam, the transition to diesel and the many mergers and take overs. CSX owned the line from 1986 until 2015, 29 years of service and 300 that day where sadly told the news that their jobs where no more, a sad day all round.
Earlier in 2015 we saw the CSX trying out DPU technology and the result have been a bit overwhelming starting with coal trains to customers. In Florida, trains went from 110 cars to 165 -170 cars with two mid train units and in Georgia coal trains went from 90-100 cars to 130 cars 2x1 mid train DPU but the real monsters is the 219/220 car coal trains and Q606 is a mammoth of a train. Despite losing this line, CSXs future still looks bright with ethanol, grain, Tropicana and slowly more intermodal trains, some over 12,000 feet long with massive manifests.
Locomotives for this line are ET44AH, ES44AH C44WH, SD70MAC ES40DC C40-8 SD70ACe and TILX RD-LS and RD-4 hoppers.
Photograph copyright and reproduced courtesy of p.csizmadia.
Photograph copyright Allan R. Willams Jr. and reproduced courtesy of RailPictures.Net.
Photograph copyright and reproduced courtesy of RailfanVirginia.com.
Photograph copyright Thomas H. Parker and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright G Gerard and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright James Hough and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright Shawn Levy and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright Harold Hodnett and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright George Nydegger and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright Ant Davis and reproduced courtesy of RRPictureArchives.NET.
Photograph copyright Chris Starnes and reproduced courtesy of RailPictures.Net.
Photograph copyright and reproduced courtesy of Gerard J. Putz.