Appalachian Coal News 12/20/97
RDV2
APPALACHIAN COAL NEWS 12/20/97
Greetings everyone. I'm back from my little Central America tour and have
been running around the coal fields using up some vacation days before I
lose them at the end of the year. I know I've been hard to contact lately so
please accept my appologies if any e-mail has gone unanswered. I should be
around until the first of the year when I'm due to spend a week or so in South
America. After spending two days in Miami recovering from a bad lunch choice
at the Honduras airport, I hooked up with C&O guru Everett Young and visited
the former Clinchfield Railroad for several days. The high point of the trip
came when I caught Shelby Pool Crew F894 at Elkhorn City with engines 58-37
and 130 CSX grey bathtub
hoppers. After finding out this train was destined for the Rapoca Energy
mine at Neece Creek on the old Clinchfield Nora Branch, the chase was on.
Followed this train down to Nora and up to the mine where it became a very
rare U782, one of only two unit trains currently loading under the
concrete silo at Neece Creek. A few days later, it was down to Hazard for
a day of railfanning and a chance to put a new camera to the test. The
weather was beautiful, CSX provided plenty of fast-paced action and
Kodak's Kodachrome buzzed through the camera way too fast. Here are a few
observations made along the way.
1) On the former Clinchfield Railroad just south of Haysi, Virginia, A&G
Coal Corporation of Wise, Virginia has taken over operations of the
Collco Tipple and started single car shipments. Collco, formerly operated
under Sun Coal by both Jewell Smokeless Coal Company and Shamrock Coal
Company, has been idle and rusting for nearly ten years. A&G recently
rehabilitated the structure by adding new truck unloading equipment,
replacing the aging electrical systems and refurbishing the conveyor belts
used to carry coal across the McClure River. This "new" facility is now
known as the "Haysi Dock" by CSX crews and loads out approximately 15 cars
per day. Sitting along the mainline, the site is currently worked by
either a Greenbriar Turn out of Dante Yard or a Shelby Turn operating out
of Shelby Yard.
2) Located on the former L&N Railroad's Eastern Kentucky Subdivision near
Sapphire in Letcher county, the Price Tipple has been demolished. The
small two-track tipple had been operated by Price-Smith Mining Associates
but had failed to load a single ton during the 1990's. The 30-car
capacity "Hebe No.2" siding has also been removed.
3) Located on the former L&N's EK Subdivision at Deane, Ky, the diminutive
Alla Tipple has also fallen victim to progress. This unusually shaped
structure had been operated by the Diplomat Coal Company in years past and
more recently by the Deane Processing Company and Freeman Resource's PC&H
Construction Company. The site has now been completely reclaimed and the
former 30-car capacity "Deanco" siding turned into part of CSX's new
passing siding at Deane. PC&H remains active at the nextdoor processing
facility known to CSX as "Democrat".
4) On the Haysi Railroad in Dickenson county, Va, the Clinchfield Coal
Company has started to demolish the "Crooked Branch" loadout. Originally
the main reason for construction of the Haysi Railroad, Crooked Branch had
shipped raw coal to the Moss No.1 preparation plant located on the
Fremont Branch until construction of the new McClure No.1 plant at
McClure, Va. Raw coal then flowed to McClure for dumping, cleaning and
movement on to customers. Once loading up to 100 cars per day, Crooked
Branch closed about three years ago after the famed "Splashdam" coal seam,
which had been mined for almost 80 years, finally played out. With
Carbomin Coal Company's Raul Prep Plant also closed, the only active site
remaining on the Haysi Railroad is Clinchfield Coal Company's (Motivation
Coal) Greenbriar tipple located at the very end of the line. Fear not,
the famed little yellow B unit, former Clinchfield Railroad #852 now owned
by Clinchfield Coal and lettered as "Haysi No.1" is rusting, faded and
very dirty but still operational.
5) At Louellen in Harlan county, Manalapan Mining Company has closed the
vast underground mine at the Hilo facility. Hilo is located on the
Seagraves Creek Spur off the Clover Fork Branch of the Cumberland Valley
Subdivision in Kentucky. Hilo, a former Duke Power-owned processing
plant, remains active by cleaning truck-delivered coal from area mines.
Hilo's main customers are Duke Power at Brice and Riverbend, NC and
Georgia Power facilities such as Stilesboro, Jac Mac and Mitchell.
6) Jericol Mining Company has opened a new underground mine near the
Glenbrook Processing Plant at Holmes Mill in Harlan county. The enormous
Glenbrook plant, located at the end of the Clover Fork Branch, no longer
ships by unit train and has been downgraded to a single-car mine.
7) Lone Mountain Processing Company, a subsidiary of Arch Coal, has opened
a large underground mine in Harlan county near the community of Holmes
Mill. Although located directly on CSX's Clover Fork Branch (the tracks
actually pass through the new facility), Lone Mountain belts the raw coal
up and over Black Mountain to an existing processing plant near St.
Charles, Va. This gives the coal company an option of loading to either
CSX on the Pennington Branch or onto NS over the St. Charles Branch to
serve a wider customer base. To date, Lone Mountain's facility, known to
both railroads as "Benedict", is loading only NS trains running out of
Norton, Va. CSX presence in this remote section of Virginia is currently
limited to two Crystal River unit trains, the N111 and the N125, which
frequent Powell Mountain Coal Company's Mayflower plant about three times
per week.
8) Near Exeter, Va on the former Interstate Railroad, Intrepid Coal
Corporation has opened two new mines on property which was once part of
Westmoreland Coal Company's huge Holton Complex. The mines, Pleasant
Valley and Gemini, both ship by truck and are not currently making use of
the unit train loader at the Holton Complex. Further east, Westmoreland's
impressive Appalachia Transloader continues to stand idle and now serves
only as a NS car storage yard. Over 200 of the Southern "Big Red" hoppers
now call this site home.
9) At Dante Yard on the former Clinchfield, CSX has completed the
demolition of the engine house which had served the CRR diesel fleet for
decades. The only engine facilities now available at Dante are the
sanding towers and turntable which remains in service. The new yard
office is also nearing completion which will signal the end for the old
(but very photogenic) scale house now serving as a crew center.
10) At the former C&O Railroad's Shelby Yard in Pike county, CSX has just
demolished one of two steam-era water tanks which have stood watch over
the yard for 80 years. The razed tank had been located next to the yard
office and had rusted to a point that it was in danger of collapse. The
second water tank at Shelby, located at the eastern end of the yard, is
scheduled to be removed within the next few months. With it will go one
of the last remnants of steam on the Big Sandy Subdivision in Kentucky.
After a rash of coaling tower removals a few years ago, the only remaining
facility from yesteryear south of Russell will be the old Mallet House at
Paintsville Yard.
11) The sale of Costain Coal Company's Eastern Kentucky holdings has been
completed and the new company is now operating under the Lodestar Energy
name. This affects three coal loading sites in the area: The Ivel unit
train loadout and flyash handling facility located on the Big Sandy
mainline in Floyd county, the Chapperal Preparation Plant near Shelbiania
also on the Big Sandy mainline in Pike county and the Ramsey Tipple
located at Coal Run Yard in Pike county.
12) Due to some unreported legal problems, Branham & Baker Coal Company
has temporarily idled the Raccoon Prep Plant located off CSX's Coal Run
Subdivision in Pike county. Raccoon had most recently been sending unit
coal trains northward to Detroit Edison for interchange at both Walbridge
and Toledo's Lang Yard and eastward for export through Newport News.
13) As requested, I've been looking into the developments surrounding the
former SouthEast Coal Company which operated along L&N's Eastern Kentucky
Subdivision. At one time, SouthEast owned a private locomotive and hopper
fleet used to shuttle coal between mines in Letcher county and a central
cleaning plant north of Ravenna Yard. After a long and much publicized
court battle with Kentucky Utilities over contracted coal pricing,
SouthEast was forced into bankruptcy and sold. DLX Corporation, a holding
company headed up by the son of SouthEast's owner, acquired the mines and
equipment at auction and resumed operations. DLX soon ran into legal
trouble of their own after conservationist filed court papers blocking
plans to expand mining operations under Lilly Cornett Woods, one of the
only remaining old growth forest in Eastern Kentucky. Unable to produce
tonnage, DLX found itself in deep financial trouble and also filed for
bankruptcy protection. That's where we left off.
Recent developments have found the entire company purchased by Florida
Power's Electric Fuels Corporation and operations resumed under the
Kentucky Processing subsidiary. The purchase included the central prep
plant located at Calla, Ky on the EK Subdivision mainline, the Tolson Fast
Load Tipple located on the Whitesburg Branch, the Swanee Tipple located on
the Rockhouse Creek mainline and several tracts of coal reserves. Swanee
has since been sold back to DLX and idled pending an upswing in the coal
industry. Kentucky Processing is currently using the Tolson Tipple to
ship coal mined from other reserves in Letcher county back to Calla for
processing. CSX provides shuttle service for the raw coal between Tolson
and Calla on train W294 using former SECX and KGPX leased hoppers.
Processed coal is now flowing out of Calla by unit train directly to two
CSX online utility plants: TVA's Widows Creek Steam Plant near Bridgeport,
Al and the Lakeland Public Service power plant at Park, Fl. Additional
tonnage is shipped by train to Ohio River ports in Kentucky at TTI's
Maysville Transloader and Louisville's Riverport Facility. Electric Fuels
continues to operate other mines in Kentucky loading onto CSX at Progress
1 and Kragon (idled) under the Kentucky May subsidiary and at Yellow Creek
under the Diamond May subsidiary.
14) CSX rails in Eastern Kentucky have been alive with interesting motive
power during the past month. EMD SD70M (MAC) lease engines 7000-7012 have
been frequent visitors to the area as well as several Union Pacific units
working off horsepower hours. Modern Conrail units continue to be spotted
working on mine runs out of Hazard Yard on the EK while CSX units 1, 2,
601 and 602 are routinely found plying the rails of the Big Sandy and Coal
Run Subs. Several of the new EMD 700-series have even been making house
calls at Shelby. At least ten Conrail C30-7 lease engines (reporting
marks CR and numbered in the 500 series) are making routine service calls
at Corbin and are usually spotted on the many autorack trains running
through town.
15) Finally, MAPCO's Scotts Branch mine on the Coal Run Subdivision has
taken delivery of the familiar remote-controlled Alco switch engine used
here for years. The unit had been out for mechanical work and a paint
job. Gone is the standard blue paint with the "Scotts Branch" logo. The
new paint scheme would make the Partridge Family drool. From a distance,
the unit looks like it made a slow trip through East L.A. pulling an open
box car full of spray paint. Up close, one can see the multi-colored
flowers, trees and lord-knows-whats have been very carefully applied and
it is truly a work of art. Mark this one down as a "must see" and "must
photo" for anyone in the area.
Merry Christmas to all and to all....a very good night!
Robby Vaughn
12/20/97