Eastern Railroad Discussion > Southbound coal on NS Shenandoah Jct

Saw southbound coal train on Shenandoah Jct camera a few minutes ago.
Symbol was 578  First southbound coal 
in a long time.  Cold weather or maybe due to change in Washington?
Don't know if it will go B Line or stay on H Line at Front Royal



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/25 14:22 by holiwood.

It went B Line

I've closely to loosely followed Virginia railroading for about 25 years and I honestly can't recall ever hearing a coal train use the B-line.

Posted from Android

Afew years ago they ran Eastbound coal over the B Line for a while as well as down the H Line, them it stopped. 

holiwood Wrote:
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> Afew years ago they ran Eastbound coal over the B
> Line for a while as well as down the H Line, them
> it stopped. 

That’s right…. I remember 740 was one of them that ran our way.

I read some reports on FB that there were actually two 758s today. You saw the second one that ran the B-Line. The first one had the Reading heritage trailing and ran the Valley through Shenandoah. Routing might depend on crew availability.

Steve Gass
Linden, VA
B-LineRailfan

Hope they run some more coal trains.
I would come out in the cold to see coal trains in the valley

holiwood Wrote:
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> Saw southbound coal train on Shenandoah Jct camera
> a few minutes ago.
> Symbol was 578  First southbound coal 
> in a long time.  Cold weather or maybe due to
> change in Washington?
> Don't know if it will go B Line or stay on H Line
> at Front Royal

Do you seriously think that Trump taking office could possibly result in an increase in coal movements 2 days later? For real?

FWIW, 578 is a symbol associated with export coal from western PA to Lamberts Point in Virginia. These trains are sporadic but when they run the normally route via Conway-Columbus-Portsmouth and over the Pokey to Norfolk.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/25 02:35 by DJ-12.

Recently (late last week?) a 579 came north on the Lurgan, then took the Buffalo Line presumably to the Corman at Keating. They seem to run as needed, I can recall seeing a 578 at Rossmoyne on the Lurgan a couple of summers ago. As alluded to, they would be R J Corman (north central PA) - Norfolk trains.

The Hotel Roanoke railcam shows a loaded coal train coming off the Valley line at 23:32 last night. The Reading Heritage was the 2nd of 3 units in the lead, plus 2 DPUs pushing. The same train headed east on the Blue Ridge District at 00:48 this morning with the former DPUs leading. The 3 locos that were on the front coming into Roanoke had been cut off from the train.

DJ-12 Wrote:
---------------------------

> 578 is a symbol associated with export coal
> from western PA to Lamberts Point in Virginia.
> These trains are sporadic but when they run the
> normally route via Conway-Columbus-Portsmouth and
> over the Pokey to Norfolk.

From Bailey mine or some such? Ordinarily
continues down the river instead of turning
right on the Port Perry bridge?

B-LineRailfan Wrote:
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> Routing might depend on crew
> availability.

Quite often it does....

Posted from Android

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DJ-12 Wrote:
> ---------------------------
>
> > 578 is a symbol associated with export coal
> > from western PA to Lamberts Point in Virginia.
> > These trains are sporadic but when they run the
> > normally route via Conway-Columbus-Portsmouth
> and
> > over the Pokey to Norfolk.
>
> From Bailey mine or some such? Ordinarily
> continues down the river instead of turning
> right on the Port Perry bridge?
Heritage units had the 578 with Reading coming from Keating off RJ Corman. I thought that was weird, as I have never heard a Corman train going to Lamberts Point. Then again HU relies on observers which can be wrong.

Which mines are still loading on the MGA?

tom

Posted from Android

MdRailfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> timz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > DJ-12 Wrote:
> > ---------------------------
> >
> > > 578 is a symbol associated with export coal
> > > from western PA to Lamberts Point in
> Virginia.
> > > These trains are sporadic but when they run
> the
> > > normally route via Conway-Columbus-Portsmouth
> > and
> > > over the Pokey to Norfolk.
> >
> > From Bailey mine or some such? Ordinarily
> > continues down the river instead of turning
> > right on the Port Perry bridge?
> Heritage units had the 578 with Reading coming
> from Keating off RJ Corman. I thought that was
> weird, as I have never heard a Corman train going
> to Lamberts Point. Then again HU relies on
> observers which can be wrong.

I don’t know if the symbol is specific to Corman loadouts. While most of the export coal from western/central PA does normally go to Baltimore, there are only so many slots there for unloading, so when things are busy some ends up going to Lamberts. My guess would be MGA coal from Bailey gets priority since Core (formerly Consol) owns both.

Posted from iPhone

globalethanol Wrote:
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> Which mines are still loading on the MGA?
>
> tom
>
> Posted from Android

Bailey Complex on the Manor Branch which is getting fed by 3 mines: Bailey, Enlow Fork, and Harvey.

Loveridge on the old MGA east division.

Both mines load for NS and CSX.

Posted from iPhone