Hi,two years ago my Churches Youth Group went to Cosby Tennessee which is in the easreren part of he state, in the applician moutians, near the North Carliana border. While we had to cross Railroad Tracks owned by Norfolk Southern, and I woundered how often are those tracks used, and are those tracks mostely used by coal trains? I know that NS has a MOW office along those tracks. Please let me know thank you.
Im not sure but judging by location its either a branch off from the ns main that is very rarely used its abandoned or its part of some shortline. Other than that i have no idea. Hope ya figure it out.
Aside from a railfan or group watching and keeping track of such things, or a publisher as in a “Trackside Guide”, you’d probably have to look for a traffic density map or similar on the railroad’s website.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Another source is the FRA’s U.S. DOT Grade Crossing Inventory Information database, which is available on-line. Although not completely reliable, it does purport to provide for each day the number of “Total Trains”, the “Day Thru” trains, “Switching” trains, and “Passenger” trains, as well as their speeds.
Here’s the link to the FRA’s Office of Safety Analysis “Home” (contents) page - then scroll down to “8 - Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory”:
http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/
Here’s the link to the “8.01 - Query by Location” page:
http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/publicsite/crossing/xingqryloc.aspx
Good luck with it !
- Paul North.
Correction the town we were passing through to get to the worksite was Newport, we were staying in Cosby. And the NS MOW office used to be the train station. How many NS trains use the line? Please let me know thank you
Newport is on the Morristown-Asheville line of the NS. I have no absolute knowledge of the traffic through there, but I am confident that anything going through Asheville from the west, including coal trains, passes through Newport.
Johnny