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CSX cuts fall first in Tennessee
I grew up watching the Clinchfield. Hard to imagine that route being shut down.
Does anyone else think this could be the last year for the Santa Train?
What are the chances of that rail line being sold to a short line operator?
Maybe, if they ran an extension cord to Al Gore’s house, they could electrify the old Clinchfield. His meters could handle the load.
I had figured the old Georgia Railroad was up for the same sort of treatment, but perhaps it might gain a train or two, if CRR traffic is now going to (mostly) take the L&N south via Corbin and Etowah.
In a thriving America this kind of thing would not be possible.
Well the end came quickly, being in East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia today and being a railfan is like being at funeral. From what is being reported is that no trains will operate north of St. Paul, Va. the only train north of Kingsport will be a coal train for Eastman in Kingsport, every week or two and will run via the CV to Big Stone Gap, Va. and NS to Frisco, Tn. and then CSX into Kingsport. All NS trackage rights trains will stay the same from St. Paul to Frisco, Tn, with a return to home rails at Frisco, Tn. The only freight train will be an as needed Q696-Q697 from Hamlet, NC to Kingsport, Tn. The power on the line is being moved today to Russell, KY or Hamlet, NC. And other than the two NS locals that visit Kingsport ( Z531 & Z595 ) that will all the activity on the line. There is rumor and wild speculation everywhere today like part of the line being removed North of St. Paul, so time will tell. All other grain, ethanol, coal and rerouted. I hope this will be just a sad chapter in the old lines story, but it looks really grim right now.
The Santa trains I assume will run this year but its future appears to be in jeopardy especially for this hard hit area economically.
As far as the old Georgia RR is concerned, intermodal service has saved this line over the years since Halsey Yard was converted to handling containers some time in the late 1980s. There is still a yard in Lithonia which serves among others E.R. Snell Contracting which has an asphalt plant plus a shop for steel fabrication and highway materials. Other industries in the area I believe will keep this line going for a number of years.
Dang - I just grazed by the Altapass section of the Loops last month and vowed to return some day. The track at Penland and Spruce Pine looked pretty good. And here I already missed out on the former Virginian in WV.
The map seems to show a few branches would be affected by this, such as the old Haysi Railroad. So the branches weren’t shipping anything?
Jim Norton, This country is thriving and almost recovered from the W/Cheney debacle. Yes, some industries suffer more than others, but it’s called market economics. You want a regulated and protectionist economy, move to the USSR. Whoops, it doesn’t exist anymore.
And please stop blaming the President for your state’'s leadership for living in the past and for their failure to adapt to the current economy. CSX is a market driven company, as are all. If the market ain’t there, they’re gone.
Not good at all. Glad I got to ride that line twice back in the 80’s. Hope they don’t take the line up - maybe WATCO if anyone could get it - & certainly Not the Genesee & Wyoming!
It is sad how some people have to drag their politics onto this board.
It does look like this might be the last year for the Santa Train…Not sure anyone is in the mood for a Santa Train. Grinch Train maybe.
Imagine someone from Massachusetts, which has negligible industrial growth, lecturing one in Alabama which is a leader in industrial growth?! Whether Mr. Anderson likes it or not our GDP is growing at one half of one percent. That’s essentially equates to no growth at all. But those from a progressive welfare state wouldn’t know that.
The biggest comment I have here is CSX has not tried to find other traffic on line. The area has any number of new potential customers that a smart operator could tap into. CSX is not trying.
Sorry, Bert, but this situation is the result of the extremist environmental policies of this President and his appointed radicals at the EPA. He made it quite clear before the 2008 election that he considered the coal industry Public Enemy #1 in the fight against ( the fraud / hoax of ) global warming. Obama stated in a filmed interview that he intended to regulate the industry out of existence by making the cost of compliance so high that companies would be forced to close down or face bankruptcy. Big Government wins again, and as usual it’s the little people who get hurt.
In our area of Appalachia whole towns have dried up and nearly disappeared, I don’t care who made what policy or which law, the people who live here are hurting, it is people not policy. The line closures are just the latest domino to fall. We here are the part of America that know one cares about, Tennessee thinks the state stops at Knoxville and Virginia believes theirs ends in Roanoke. But the lives of these people are just grease in the socialist cogs, that continue to destroy everything good and great about our nation. We use to dig things out of the ground and build stuff with it and now we drive to a store and buy it at whatever price the merchandizer thinks is fair, and we live with it because we have too. I pray for the three hundred CSX employees and the contractors who lost their jobs Thursday but also for the one thousand miners in West Virginia that will be losing theirs real soon. A few more towns will die off and more families will lose homes and cars and college educations for their kids, but somebody in Washington will pour themselves a drink and say " we put another nasty old coal mine out of business today, Cheers!