Eastern Railroad Discussion > Boring CSX and some GCK ..... 09, 10, 11 June 2018

Saturday - 09 June 2018

1) Saturday Morning finds Q316-07 working in the east yard at Keyser, WV. Also present is the power for B772 (far left), Mt. Storm Power Station loads T051, and on the far right the cars B772 will take to Grafton.

2) With a drag tied down at Beall Street in Cumberland, Q316-07 running eastbound, wrong main at Dawson, MD.

3) Q316-07 eastbound near Pinto, MD... in the right background, the Cresaptown Vol. Fire Dept conducts a live fire training on an acquired structure.

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1) At Beall Street.. N768-08 (left) waiting for an outbound crew as the Q316-07 waits for a signal to enter the single main. It would be late Sunday afternoon before the coal drag would be crewed and move east.

2) an 3) WMSR GP30 #502 sits on the Interchange Track at Cumberland waiting for a CSX Yard Job to take it to the Shops. Sister #501 has the day's excursion heading into the station. CSX is doing some wheel work and traction motor inspections on the locomotive.

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1) Earlier at Keyser, Q316-07 had shoved their train back onto track #1 so they don't have to use the hand throws at 21st. Bridge Rd. On the freight track to the left is D063 a Ballast train that has been spreading stone on track #1 before a tie gang moves in.

2) D067-09 westbound at Rat-Tail, WV

3) D067-09 westbound at Piedmont, WV. They would got to MK Junction to run around their train and pickup additional loads to start dropping ballast coming back east.

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1) Amtrak P030-09 passing the power from an unknown train at Mexico Farms Tower in Cumberland, MD.

2) P030-09 eastbound at Mexico farms.

Little out of order, Sorry !

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/18 04:45 by DTWilson.

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With not much going on, we stop in Luke, MD to catch GCK #101 switching their part of the Verso Paper Mill.

The cars are loaded with Coatings for the paper process. CSX handles the cars to and from the mill with a crew from the WVC Junction for the GCK to switch.

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Sunday - 10 June 2018

1) Q316-08 has to use the hand throws at 21st. Bridge Rd., MD. to crossover from track 2 to track 1. The N768 is still at Beall St. ahead and overnight they parked the N750 at Brady behind it.

2) Q316-08 eastbound passing VA Ave (Lane) at Cumberland, MD.

3) N768-08 now with an outbound crew on board starts across the viaduct at Cumberland, MD.

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1) N768-08 eastbound at Mexico Farms passing the Q316-08 power.

2) Back in Keyser, we catch the N780-07 eastbound at Keymont, WV, they too with use the hand throws at 21st. Bridge Rd. so they can run around the N750 at Brady.

3) Q317-10 westbound arriving at Keyser, WV.

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Monday - 11 June 2018

1) Q316-09 eastbound at Bull Neck Curve outside Keyser, WV. Overnight CSX moved the N750 so the 316 has a straight shot to Cumberland, MD on track #2.

2) And the rains came.... B772-11 shoves their Grafton cars west on track #1. The cars were in the westbound siding put a Mettiki empty hopper train at the west end of the siding required the B772 crew to pull their cars out thru the east end and then run around their cars to position the power correctly for the trip.

3) Stalled on 17-Mile Grade with a dead leader, the crew from E788-8 taxi'ed to Keyser to pick up a new leader. The crew will run track 2 to Mountain Lake Park, then crossover to track1 and back down to their train. #707 westbound at Piedmont, WV.

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1) E780-10 westbound at Keyser, WV with 130 empty hoppers.

2) Mettiki Mine empties, E744-10 westbound at Beryl, WV on the Thomas Sub with 84 empty cars.

3) Q317-11 westbound at 21st. Bridge Rd., MD.

Thank You for looking, Tim W.

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As always Tim, your photos are great and you keep us well informed of the happenings in the Cumberland area and west. One question that I have is when a train heads down the former Western Maryland to the Mt. Storm Power Plant, are there any other customers who receive rail shipments along that line? From what I was told some years ago, CSX chased all the other customers away, like they did in Thomas, W.V. causing the companies to either ship and receive products by truck, or to either move away or go out of business. Thanks for your help.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Once again, you hit it out of the park! Excellent photos, thanks for posting!

Real nice photos....and nice to see Mexico tower. In 1994 I locked the keys to my car in the trunk in the lot opposite the tower. Thankfully, the tower was still open back then. The operator let me use the phone to call a locksmith...

ClubCar Wrote:
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> As always Tim, your photos are great and you keep
> us well informed of the happenings in the
> Cumberland area and west. One question that I
> have is when a train heads down the former Western
> Maryland to the Mt. Storm Power Plant, are there
> any other customers who receive rail shipments
> along that line? From what I was told some years
> ago, CSX chased all the other customers away, like
> they did in Thomas, W.V. causing the companies to
> either ship and receive products by truck, or to
> either move away or go out of business. Thanks
> for your help.
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

Other than Metikki Mine and the power plant, I don't know of any other industry on the line, unless the mine at Gatzmer is still a going concern.

I wonder why CSX parks drags at Beall when they have a huge and one assumes mostly empty yard (simce the hump closure) at Cumberland?

Posted from iPhone

ClubCar Wrote:
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" One question that I
> have is when a train heads down the former Western
> Maryland to the Mt. Storm Power Plant, are there
> any other customers who receive rail shipments
> along that line? ".....
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

Mt. Storm is at the top of the Stoney River Sub and Mettiki is off the Thomas Sub... other than those two customers that is all. CSX pulled up the switch into Alpine Mine earlier this year off the Thomas and the rumours are that the remain WM tracks east of Biggs at MP 23.0 to 21st. Bridge Rd. are soon to be lifted.

DJ-12 Wrote:
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>
> I wonder why CSX parks drags at Beall when they
> have a huge and one assumes mostly empty yard
> (simce the hump closure) at Cumberland?
>
> Posted from iPhone

CSX routinely parks drags (N999) at Keyser, WV on track #2 also. As I write this a N999 is tied down on track #2 west of the plant as the N792 crew puts the N999 power into the west yard. Once that is completed they will combine their trains before going east. The N999 has been tied down on the main since late Friday night.

Tim

Nice pics!! Thanks...

Doesn't look boring to me, looks like a great time railfanning. Thanks for sharing...

Steve H.