On the Southern loops, Norfolk Southern is a busy railroad

The general consensus is that the loops that enable Norfolk Southern to climb the Blue Ridge near Old Fort, N.C., are less busy today than in the past. Before the 1982 NS merger, Southern sent more traffic up and down the mountain that stretches a 3-mile climb over impossible grades into a 13-mile spiral staircase with 2.2 percent grades. NS rerouted it via Knoxville, Bristol, and Roanoke. But you couldn't tell that by my visit to the region on Wednesday. It was as busy as I've ever seen it.

This is home territory for me. Watching Southern Railway trains handle top tonnage via stiff grades on the Old Fort line, Saluda grade, Murphy Branch, and the relatively gentle river line to Knoxville were staples of my youth. So on Thursday morning, when I navigated the public road that runs the perimeter of the yard, I was in a familiar place. I could see plenty of power parked at the brick 1920s roundhouse, a westbound hopper train on the main line, and loaded coal and rock trains in the yard, waiting to go east. Something was going to happen; it was just a matter of which direction and when.

I met my friend Jim King for an early lunch, and after a quick bite of Mexican, we returned to the yard to see who was on the move. The winner: an eastbound rock train, better than 50 cars long, on its way to a Duke Power's coal-fired steam plant in the Charlotte area, where the rock will go into scrubbers for the exhaust. A pair of six-axle GEs coupled up to the train and began to pump air. We headed out of town to a spot at Azalea, milepost 135, where the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses the NS mainline and Interstate 40.  When the train came by, it was making a run for the hill into Swannanoa, and the two manned helpers on the rear were humming. Those loaded cars of rock weigh 110 tons each, and with them wet from Tropical Storm Lee, they were even more! It took all of that better than 16,000 hp to make that train move.

Jim heard on the scanner that the eastbound train was set up for a meet at Grovestone, a passing siding just west of Black Mountain. So we headed there to witness a unit woodchip train, No. 60K, behind three units. This train moved out as soon as our eastbound cleared, and the westbound made quick work of the hills. I'm sure those woodchips from the pine forests of South Carolina were nearer their destination of the paper plant at Canton, N.C., in short order.

The eastbound rock train met westbound mixed freight No. 135 at Coleman in the middle of the loops. This is one of those lonely spots where the boys leave their beer cans and spent shotgun shells. Jim and I watched near Jarrett Tunnel as the epic struggle of trains on Old Fort grade continued once again. No. 135 roared into life passing milepost 120.
 
Not busy? You couldn't tell me that!

Read more about trains on Old Fort grade in our new edition of Locomotive, which is available on newsstands later this month.