The announced downgrade of the Clinchfield RR is somewhat puzzling. Often watched the 1:00 PM helper shuffle usually couple of F units to push loaded coal trains to Erwin.
A puzzle is why was there the annual maintenance blitz completed last summer on the Erwin south ROW and Bostic - Charlotte. Was this a case of lower management not knowing upper management’s intent ? Certainly that track will probably need only very routine work for years.
And the line from Bostic to Charlotte.
It’s not clear from the news releases as to whether CSX is shutting down their Erwin operations or the Clinchfield/Eastern Kentucky route as a whole. At one point in the not-so-distant past, quite a bit of grain and few weekly trainloads of Illinois coal used the CRR to get to destinations in the Carolinas. I could see the line remaining in use, staffed by crews out of Ashland KY and some point on the southern end of the route.
It would also make a nice target for another operator - they could coast on the improvements to the physical plant for another fifteen years (not to mention that CSX would recapture much of their investment in the sale). I could see a Montana Rail type of operation, with CSX guaranteeing “x” overhead moves a year.
CSX has shutdown their Erwin Terminal, it was completely empty by the weekend, the only traffic north of Kingsport is by NS on trackage rights to Frisco, Tn. from St. Paul, Va. There will be no trains between St. Paul and McClure, Va. The Cross coal got rerouted in the summer and comes via Nashville and Chattanooga. A CSX spokesman said that it is very unlikely that Erwin would ever be reoccupied by CSX. Now there are rumors of others terminals closing in Eastern Ky. But the days of the Clinchfield are all but over. With the mine layoffs that are coming railfans in S.W. Va. will be lucky to see a train or two a week. It is odd though that CSX spent all that money on the blitz, but NS was doing maintenance on the PD district when they mothballed it.
If the “blitz” is annual, why would the track “need only very routine work for several years”?
From a posting by someone on another forum near one end of the Clinchfield, it sounds like the last blitz only did spot work, mostly on curves. The poster said he thought that unusual at the time.
Jeff
Highest wear rates on any line are in the curves. CSX has multiple ‘Curve Patch’ gangs that operate over the system dealing with worn curve rail, transposing and installing new rail where necessary.
If CSX is spinning the line off, as has been suggested, then the track can be allowed by the new operator to slowly degrade to a lower class. If they don’t want/need 40 MPH, it doesn’t really matter if the limit on the track drops to 25 MPH.
If CSX decides to sell it the only person who would want it is NS, because of the trackage rights it has already, No one is going to buy it because the customer base is gone, you can’t make money hauling trains of empty cars. There is no traffic outside Kingsport except for the mines and all are gone but one. CSX can’t or won’t pull out of Kingsport and leave all that traffic to NS. I could see NS asking for trackage rights all the way to Spartanburg, but why would CSX keep the line and do the maintenance and let NS make all the money? It is messy here right now, way too many questions and no ansewers.
Hold on, time out. So is CSX actually mothballing/spinning off lines, or just closing the terminal? What happens to power stations that are still coal-fired, like Cliffside and Marshall in North Carolina?
Marshaw steam station has NS and CSX they will be ok Cliffside will need the Clinchfield and at the Cliffside spur is a new plant Horse Head metals opened up about three years ago.
CSX has endeavored to ‘mothball’ or downgrade other through routes in the past - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. All routes have a finite capacity. Many plans that work with pencil and paper (computers now-a-days) don’t end up working the real world of humans, steel and horsepower. Time will tell.
According to CSX’s press release, which anyone can go look at on their website, as a result of significantly decreased coal traffic, $1 billion over the last four years, they are shutting down “locomotive service center, project shop, car shop, and eliminating switching operations.” Will elimate 300 positions.
In addition, “merchandise traffic, including unit grain trains will be rerouted.”
Given the extent of coal traffic losses, it should be no surprise that they would eliminate costs where ever and when ever they can.
Does NOT say they are diverting all traffic, or contemplating sale or abandonment. They might be, but I do not know enough about the remaining coal traffic to offer an opinion.
Mac
The full quote also says remaining coal traffic will be rerouted. This article from the Johnson City Press on Thursday states that it was effective immediately, and has a few photos of the last coal train to depart Erwin.
Some context: The EIA estimates that coal’s marketshare will drop from 40% to 30% of the U.S. electrical generation market over the next few years. Largely being squeezed out (and being replaced by NG) are smaller (and often older) demand plants (aka “peaker”). Base load facilities installed scrubbers and will keep on buring coal. But the hit on coal production is not spread out evenly. Now that they can burn high-sulfur product, coal fired plants in the Midwest and Southeast are going to far cheaper Illinois Basin coal.
CSX just opened a new yard (Casky) on the L&N in western Kentucky to inspect and service unit coal trains headed to and from the Southeast via the Dixie Flager routing. This is their only Chicago - Southeast route cleared for domestic stacks, and presumably they would like to maximize on that investment, before what would be a crazy spend on daylighting the KD sub or the Clinchfield.
According to employees who worked out of Erwin all coal traffic has been moved off the Clinchfield. Cliffside coal is being routed through Atlanta back up to Spartanburg, SC to Bostic where the crew will run around there train and then take it back to Cliffside. The Cliffside spur faces north hence the run around. I haven’t seen a coal train on the Bostic to Charlotte line in over a month. I assume the Marshall trains are going through Hamlet. All the facilities in Erwin have been closed. The locomotive shop, car shop, etc are done. No switching will be done in Erwin either. A picture was posted on Facebook showing one lone boxcar in the entire yard at Erwin.
The only traffic moving is a few locals, some merchandise trains to serve Eastman Tennennsee Corporation and the NS trackage rights trains.
A little more info: All McClure coal is moving north to Russell, KY. There are 19 miles of track between McClure and St. Paul that has zero traffic and is effectively mothballed. NS has trackage rights from St. Paul to Frisco, TN and that is the only reason more mileage isn’t mothballed. CSX has no customers north of Kingsport.
Not the Clinchfield, but… CSX to Close Mechanical Shops in Corbin, KY - October 20, 2015
Approximately 180 employees affected.
A partial reason for this is that some of the Blitz crews were taken from the Clinchfiled to clean up the “high profile” wreck in Nashville. A relation of mine is one of those who were sent from the Blitz to remove contaminated soil and reconstruct the track.
Cant wait for all of those “clean energy” jobs to start kicking in.
Ed