My first memories of Trains are the big, dirty, and blue locomotives of conrail. Now those days are gone, long gone in my sense of time. Being only 11 in 1999 when conrail called it quits my memories of conrail are very small and few. So now being old enough to do the electrical , and construction work I would like to capture conrail as I rember it by modeling it. I have found out that the line that runs about five miles from my house is what was the West Virginia secondary. I would like any information at all that anybody may have on this line.
Thanks,
Trent
Here is the address of a West Virginia forum,I think there is a Conrail discussion thread on it http://mountainstaterails.net/ joe
Norfolk Southern owns it now. They still call it the West Virginia Secondary.
I remember fondly the Conrail era, at least the mid-eighties to 1999. Shame
Conrail is gone, but it can live on in our memories and our layouts.
Here is a link to a Yahoo discussion group (of which I am a member) :
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvsecondary/
I hope the link works, as I'm a little rusty at posting them. If it doesn't, you can
cut and paste.
Before Conrail, it was Penn Central; New York Central.
There is a five-span curved chord bridge at Point Pleasant, W. Va. (crossing the
Ohio River). On an interesting side note, the old Silver Bridge was right beside it.
As you perhaps know,it collapsed Dec. 1967,killing over 40 people.
There are 4 tunnels in Meigs County,Ohio, the longest is around 800 feet at
Langsville. There is another longer tunnel at New Lexington,Oh.
The main commodities : coal,chemical, mixed freight.
I've only railfanned from Columbus,Oh. to Charleston, W. Va. One of these
days I'm going to go way back into the mountains of W. Va. to the end of the
line. Train movements weren't that great, on good days 1-3, at least at my
neck of the woods, Hobson Yard, 4 tracks,about a mile long. Located beside
Middleport,Oh.
Cascade Green Forever ! GET RICH QUICK !! Count your Blessings.
fievel wrote: Before Conrail, it was Penn Central; New York Central.There is a five-span curved chord bridge at Point Pleasant, W. Va. (crossing theOhio River). On an interesting side note, the old Silver Bridge was right beside it.As you perhaps know,it collapsed Dec. 1967,killing over 40 people. There are 4 tunnels in Meigs County,Ohio, the longest is around 800 feet atLangsville. There is another longer tunnel at New Lexington,Oh.The main commodities : coal,chemical, mixed freight.I've only railfanned from Columbus,Oh. to Charleston, W. Va. One of thesedays I'm going to go way back into the mountains of W. Va. to the end of theline. Train movements weren't that great, on good days 1-3, at least at myneck of the woods, Hobson Yard, 4 tracks,about a mile long. Located besideMiddleport,Oh.
The bridge I know well, it's about 45 minutes from me. My dad is a carpenter and works near the bridge often, so when I was little I was down there a lot. I belive Dad told me he saw a speed limt sign of only 10mph on that bridge. why so slow, does it have any thing to do with the age, and height of the bridge?
The Hobson yard is very near to the JayMar coaling company which is who my Dad works for. I rember always watching it when we would drive by it. Also I never really knew what it was when I was younger. If I went down to vist do you think NS officals would let me on the property to look around?
Hey thanks very much on the information both of you. A few more specfic questions.
What motive power was used on the line?
What/who where some of the biggest suppliers/demands for railroad shipments?
Where can I get a satillite map of the line?
The bridge is almost 100 years old,completed in 1908 (same for the Langsville tunnel).
I don't know of any clearance problems. Perhaps it's an age issue. Does anybody else
out there know?
As for NS allowing you on the property, I don't know. Politeness and courtesy go a long
way in gaining access,even in this liability crazy world. I have only casually railfanned
since the late 80's.
Back then the usual motive power was 2 SD-40s on the headend, 2 SD-40's on the
tailend, for coal movements, which of course were always northbound. They had a little
difficulty with wheelslip ( with underpowered trains ) at Carpenter Hill, which was about
2% (my estimate) on the south slope, somewhat steeper on the north slope. The hill is
basically between Athens and Meigs counties. I never saw any wheelslip, as usually they
had 3 or 4 SD40's. I am not 100% certain, but I believe a lot of the coal went to a loadout
dock at Toledo.
Chemical plants in the Kanawha Valley (excuse my spelling,might be wrong) were of
course the destination for tank cars.
Google has a sattlelite image service, but I think it only covers urban areas.
The SD-40's were replaced by wide cab units, probably in the early Nineties. Sorry, I
don't know specifically what kind of units.
I found that Conrails three wide Cab units
SD80 Mac
SD70Mac
SD60M
do any of those seem right?
There are some great shots of the West Virginia Secondary at http://www.davedupler.com/rr.html
plus other southern ohio spots.
ACY 203 wrote:I believe NYC built that line primarily to supply itself with locomotive coal.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEET wrote: ACY 203 wrote:I believe NYC built that line primarily to supply itself with locomotive coal.I remember reading something someplace about this line but my recollection is that it was "acquired" as opposed to "built"; somehow or the other the name West Virginia Central crops to mind. Anyway, if memory serves me correctly NYC acquired/built this line specifically for the purpose of tapping coal deposits, something deficient on the rest of the system.
Actually, the line was Kanawha and Michigan, Toldeo and Ohio Central, and some other lines. Check out http://www.members.kconline.com/plank/tochome.htm
If you can, locate a book titled "A Sampling of Penn Central." There are a number of photos of the WV Secondary. Also a discussion of operating conditions and large customers. Of course all information is 20 years older than you want and the locomotives wear basic black instead of blue, but you should find it a good place to start. (I drove I-64 near some of this line last summer and was able to recognize one of the chemical plants.)
Does your local public library do interlibrary loans? If so, ask Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne IN, to send you "my" copy.
Interesting note on the bridge: according to the book, during PC times the speed limit on the bridge was greater than the speed limit on the approaching tracks, due to deferred maintenance.