Long trains rollin'

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sun Aug 6 22:21:55 EDT 2006


I've traveled Route 52 between Kenova and Williamson only a handful of times. On one occasion, I was lucky and got stopped at a grade crossing near Kimball just before the head end of a long coal train crossed the road. This particular train was well over 100 cars and I enjoyed this show for a long time (probably five minutes or more - he wasn't moving very fast). Since I was the first auto in line, I didn't notice until the train finally cleared the grade crossing that there was quite a line of vehicles behind me by then, and I seriously doubt that any of them enjoyed being stopped there like I did. Now I'm not sure what vehicle traffic was like in that part of WV in 1967, or whenever this 500 car train ran, but I'd be willing to bet that the railroad received a lot of complaints for completely tying up just about every town as it rolled through. Could a pubilcity stunt have turned into a public relations nightmare? Might something like this inspire some towns to
pass ordinances regarding the lenght of time a train could tie up vehicle traffic at a grade crossing?

Bob Simpson
St. Paris, Ohio

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:
I was there, but don't recall the date, just a hot summer day.. Alongside
the double main at Coal Grove, OH. It was something else, 500 loads of WV
coal with ( I recall) 3 sets of power, front, midtrain and rear. I timed it
and it took 13 minutes and 33 seconds to clear the Ford Brothers (trucking)
crossing. What they did with it after arriving in Portsmouth, OH yard I
don't remember. On thing, they didn't try it again.


Oakie G. Ford
IRONTON, OH



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