Back in June 2006, I was an athlete for the NC state games for Special Olympics powerlifting and I was sleeping at the dorms at NC State University in Raleigh, NC (yes of course, there is a jointly owned CSX (ex-SAL) and Norfolk Southern (ex-Southern Railway) that runs right through the middle of the campus and in front of the dorms) and I saw a Norfolk Southern coal train in Raleigh, which was quite a surprise because I have never saw a coal train running through Raleigh before this night of June 3rd. I tried to look for the coal train symbols and where they go to/from on the web and it seems like that I can’t even find it and I definitely need some assistance. Does anybody know the Norfolk Southern coal train symbols and origination/destination for which they operate through the Raleigh/Cary areas. Thank you very much and I definitely appreciate your assistance. -Dennis Blair
This is a link to the Norfolk Southern website Horsepower: Coal Marketing and Transportation Guide
The site should provide you with a start for researching NS coal train consists. I know from my limited research that NS generates most of it’s revenue from coal consist loads originating from mines in eastern states including Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The NS also serves many coal fired power plants a well, and I believe that there is one near Wilmington, NC.
I believe NS hauls coal from the eastern Kentucky field to the Cape Fear plant west of Raleigh, near Sanford, and to the Lee plant east of Raleigh, near Selma or Wilson.
I’m a conductor for NS on the Danville District, and we are the ones that run those coal trains through Raleigh. I’ve taken several through there myself. The ones you see are going to the Progressive Energy (ex CP&L) power plant in Goldsboro NC. We usually send about 2-3 a week down there and most of them run at night. The other plant near Sanford mentioned is actually in Brickhaven. Those trains run out of Greensboro down the CF line (old A&Y). All of the coal train come trough Roanoke VA where our crews get on them and bring them to Greensboro, swap crews and go to either Goldsboro or Brickhaven. If you have a scanner, 99% of the Goldsboro trains will be 846’s, the Brickhaven trains are usually 84J, 72G, etc.
thank you very much for all of your help and I definitely appreciate it your help. I actually live not too far from Brickhaven (bout 15 or 20 miles down the track from the plant) in Fuquay-Varina (where the branch line splits south to Fayetteville from the old Norfolk Southern railway main.