Join the discussion on the following article:
Norfolk Southern’s last West Virginia secondary train
EDITOR PLEASE NOTE: The smaller picture is a reprint of the one above. The caption says EMD F7, that sure looks strange for an F7
Thanks for the correct picture.
When you tally up the populations of the communities along this trackage there is a market for goods. Problem is the railroads let this traffic go away a long time ago. Maybe they should look at ways to regain individual carload traffic once again.
Where is the cut-off point east of Columbus?
So what happens now? Will the track be pulled up or has that been decided yet?
George:
The line will be rail banked. It will remain in service and maintained to the federal standard, but it will see no trains.
Most of the traffic is around Nitro where there are several chemical plants. In addition Toyota(I think) has a plant along the Kanawha River.
West Virginia has Paw Paws and had chestnuts.
I don’t understand about the Route Miles being Cut?? How many Miles??
Toyota makes 6-speed transmissions in Buffalo, WV - about 30 miles NW of Nitro. I do not know if it’s rail served, but my guess is that the assembly plants it feeds are too close to be viable for rail given the time sensitivity. I wondered how reactivating a closed line would justify closing another, but I would guess a lot of chemical traffic moves to and from Texas and the East Coast and would not suffer too much in the way of additional mileage.
Methinks there was no other traffic\ from Nitro until almost the Columbus city limits - there is or was a coal loadout at Gloucester Ohio, which fed the AEP plant in Conesville, OH. Ohio Central was handling this traffic via New Lexington OH and their own ex PRR/NKP/PRR routing via Trinway, OH - again, I don’t know if it’s still running.
Cool line to follow just not much on line business there! 3 years ago we followed it from New Lexington, OH to Nitro WV not much going on back then followed one small train for a couple of hours looks like the railroad is all hand throw switches for what sidings are left. Looks like it was quite the line in its time!
Sad thing is this is not going to be the last line to get this treatment from either CSX or NS. They are going to do this in other parts of their systems in the very near future.
Best part is going to be when traffic comes back and not necessarily coal but in other sectors they are going to be screaming we have no capacity but management gets rewarded for stupid short sighted mistakes pick your lines wisely kids it could bit you in the ass later!
This route, it seems, is a prime target for a tourist line.
On Monday, February 9, 2016 at 6:30 pm I heard a south bound train going through Pickerington, OH on the line in question. I did not see the train thus I do not know the number of locomotives and cars. Pickerington is about 15 miles east of Columbus.
The fall of 2016 I observed grade crossings being repaired in Pickerington and new ties and welded rail being installed in Thurston which is about 20 miles south east of Pickerington. There are several small grain elevators along the line from east Columbus to New Lexington. Maybe there will still be local service.
Mr. Lockman, I agree with you. I think there is still five days a week a north bound coal train from Glouster to the AEP Conesville Power Plant and then return. I don’t know for how long as AEP is shutting down the coal boilers and switching to natural gas. I think the daily coal train on the former PRR/CR/OH Central Pan Handle
from Cadiz Junction which is east of Conesville has ceased. However there are now oil trains out of the Cadiz area with the spur from Cadiz Junction to Cadiz restored.
The problem with using this as a tourist line is that there are plenty of tourist lines across the country and creating more will diminish the limited market share for the others. It would also require a major investment to maintain 100 miles of track for the sole use of a start-up tourist railroad and would require a lot of passenger volume to keep it viable on top of all of the other costs. Railroading is a business and it is about serving customers and making money, so we cannot expect every abandoned line to be used for tourism. The line will apparently be maintained for the foreseeable future and hopefully business will develop along the route to revive it. At least they are not ripping up the tracks.