Pocahontas Div branch line locomotives

[NW Mailing List]

Mr. Fulton,

As mentioned elsewhere, a wide range of motive power was used on branch 
lines, predominately twenty hundreds (Class Y3/3a/4) on mine runs, until 
the late 1950's. Class Z1b's were used where weight was an issue. 
Main-line jobs with twenty-one hundreds (Class Y5/6/6a/6b) and electric 
motors (Class LC1/2) moved trains of empties to and loads from 
branch-line yards. Passenger runs used Class E2a's, except for a Class M 
on the North Fork Branch. A Class K1 was known to grace the head end of 
the Buchanan Branch Mixed, although a Class Y3 was regular power. The 
Tug River Local freight out of Williamson turned at Wilcoe Yard on the 
Tug Fork Branch with a Class M2. The Blackford Turn out of Bluefield 
down the Clinch Valley to the Honaker Branch used a Class G1. By the 
late 1950's, displaced by diesels on main-line jobs, twenty-one hundreds 
bumped twenty hundreds on mine runs. Starting in 1950, the other jobs 
were gradually cut off, a few getting diesels before so.

Best of the Season to All,

Grant Carpenter

On 12/11/2019 3:31 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> What locomotives were used on the branch lines in the 40's and 50's? 
> In particular I'm looking at the coal haulers in Pocahontas Division. 
> I think that the Class E2a's were used and perhaps some version of the 
> Class M's. Are these right? And are their others?
>
> Thanks,
> Tom Fulton
> Asheville, NC

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