Friday night on the CSX Henderson Subdivision in Western Kentucky was a very interesting night.
First, I decided to take a drive to a crossing in town (Hopkinsville, KY) called Metcafe Crossing. There, I caught a northbound mxed freight. I thought, "Hmm, maybe I should pace this one up north to Crofton (another town along the Henderson Sub in Kentucky) and see what he does.
I paced it until about halfway to Crofton, where I lost sight of it. When I arrived in Crofton, I was greeted with the sight of a fresh CSX GE Evolution idling in front of a long string of empty grain cars (going north). At about 7:30, he was about to get up and go (ditch lights ocilating, bell ringing, a double toot on the horn, the works). He got about 60 feet down the track when he suddenly and abruptly stopped. I was baffled. I thought "Oh well" and walked into the local diner (with a trackside view) and order up a burger and fries. It was about an hour and a half of eating, chatting, and no southbound trains passing by. Then, I paid and walked out, and Guess who was sitting there idiling? The same GEVO and empty cars. It was weird, I thought, because trains usually sit in Crofton for no longer than 30 minutes at time.
On the drive back I noticed there was a train sitting on the track, and it was the same northbound train I saw earlier in the evening in Hopkinsville at Metcafe crossing. Not 20 feet behind his last car, there was another mixed freight sitting there. At this point, I thought something was up.
When I got within the Hopkinsville city limits, I decided to go back to Metcafe. I got a pretty good surprise when I got there, too. It was the northbound Madisonville Coal Train, stopped, blocking the crossing. "Ok, now I know something's up." I said to myself.
There is another good spot to watch trains in town, and it's called Casky crossing (It's a little south of Hopknsville). I decided to go there, and guess what? I saw another northbound mixed freight sitting just 50 feet south of the crossing.
I went home, puzzled as to why all traffic on the Henderson Subdivision was shut down on Friday, October 20th in the late hours of the evening.
Although, I did get more information on the subject when I talked to my friend Josh. He said that he was listening to his scanner all afternoon when at about 7:30, he heard the CSX dispatcher say something along the lines of "Attention all trains on the Henderson Sub, We have a Code (something), all trains please stop. If you can make it to the next signal, do so. But if you do not have room, stop where you are. We want you coupler to coupler."
I thought this was odd, since it was about 7:30 when the northbound CSX empty grain train started and stopped. He must have gotten the order as I was watching him throttle up.
Although my friend didn't quite get the code number, he suspected anything along the lines of a terror threat, derailment, or a possible bridge failure. If any of you have any information, please share it with us. It was pretty sobering that something happened right here in my neck of the woods (although I dont quite know what).
-Brandon