North Fork Hollow Mine Run

[NW Mailing List]

And, of course, I forgot the attachment:

On Wed, Dec 3, 2025 at 7:23 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Jim,
>
> The Algoma tipple was located just below the upper switch such that
> empties had to be shoved above there on the tail track that was the
> delivery track, an extension of the (runaround) main track. Alex notes the
> extension was 25 empties long as of 1925. Empties were then dropped as
> needed from there into the three tipple tracks. The tail track on your
> track chart snippet suffers from severe foreshortening due to the nearby
> curvature schedule/chart, as shown here:
>
>
>
> There were two spurs at Algoma. The one shown above just beyond the upper
> switch was used for mine/tipple supplies and equipment. Not shown above was
> the company store spur just below the outlet (lower) switch, and was the
> destination for the occasional boxcar I mentioned in the reply below.
>
> To deliver by pulling instead of pushing empties would enlist the tail
> track and upper switch in a proper switchback move. Empties would be pulled
> past the upper turnout, then switched back into a delivery track below the
> turnout. So, the needed additional feature is the 25-car delivery capacity
> that would have to be added between the upper switch and the first tipple
> track switch.
>
> Grant Carpenter
>
> On 12/2/2025 7:58 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> The Buzzard Creek Branch was extended in 1899 to connect with the Crosby &
> Beckley logging RR's wooden track that went over Indian Ridge to go down
> Pinnacle Creek. The standard gauge portion of the extension was probably
> left in place when the logging stopped in 1904. In 1914 the N&W surveyed a
> route from Buzzard Creek along the old logging RR right of way to connect
> with the proposed Guyandot & Tug River RR coming down Pinnacle Creek.
>
> In 1925 the Buzzard Creek Branch was extended to hold 25 empties to
> accommodate the new Algoma tipple. The stub track, which only held four
> cars, was put in at the same time.
>
> Alex Schust
> ------------------------------
> *From:* NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org>
> <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing List
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 2, 2025 7:44 AM
> *To:* NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Subject:* Re: North Fork Hollow Mine Run
>
> Grant,
> More thanks than I can express for this information.  Your response
> contains lots of goodies, so I am going over it several times to make sure
> I glean all I can, and am going to respond one piece at a time to make sure
> I cover as much as possible.  Since Mike Rector, and perhaps others that
> are following along, have not properly committed themselves by fully
> memorizing the layout of North Fork branch in all its archeological
> incarnations :^), I will attach portions of track charts and possibly other
> diagrams stolen, uh, I mean borrowed from *North Fork – Norfolk & Western
> Branch Line*   by Alex Schust, Mason Cooper.   I would highly recommend
> picking up a copy from the commissary, a steal at $28.
> So now for my first (of many) questions, refer to attached track chart
> snippet.  Your message stated "Algoma was at the end of the spur with no
> tail track to pull past".  The chart shows four tracks at the tipple, three
> of which went under the structure I believe for loading while the fourth
> was a bypass.  The empties would have been stages "above" the tipple for
> gravity loading.  The chart shows the "bypass" track extending a ways past
> the point where the loading tracks converge on the uphill side, with a
> short stub off a facing point turnout.  So did the mine run push all the
> empties up past this extension for storage?  What was the purpose of the
> stub spur?  What additional features would have been needed for a "tail
> track" that could have allowed the run to pull the empties up instead of
> pushing them?
> As always, more to come,
> Jim Cochran
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 6:48 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
>
> Jim,
>
> As if operations are not confusing enough, they varied and evolved over
> the decade from the opening of the new Elkhorn Tunnel to the end of steam.
> So by "headed West," that would be to the Eckman Yard table, with or
> without loads, turn, then pick up loads and head east, if in the same time
> period as when the mine run is still dispatched from Eckman Yard.
>
> Regarding the North Fork Mine Run, I found this:
>
> Regarding your mines of interest, my info only goes back to post-WWII. By
> then, the working tipples I heard about were at Algoma, Gilliam, Rolfe,
> Ashland and Crumpler.
>
> The North Fork Hollow mine run was a daylight job out of Eckman Yard.
> Dispatched facing upgrade, the regular power was the 2023 with Cicero Sells
> as engineer, the senior man at Eckman.
>
> An Elkhorn job out of Bluefield would set off empties the night before on
> the storage tracks Elk Ridge (60 cars) and North Fork (55 cars) adjacent to
> the branch line near North Fork Junction. The mine run could bring more
> empties from Eckman Yard or Byrd Yard in Northfork, as needed.
>
> The job was broken up into three round trips from the junction up the
> branch: first to Algoma up the Buzzards Creek Branch, then to Gilliam and
> Rolfe, then to Ashland and Crumpler.
>
> Algoma was at the end of the spur with no tail track to pull past, so
> empties were pulled off the junction-end of the storage tracks while
> backing out onto the main line, then shoved forward up the branch main
> track, then up the spur. Loads came back to Byrd Yard.
>
> Gilliam and Rolfe were delivered by trailing point moves from the main
> track, so empties were pulled up the branch on this trip. The engine backed
> down with loads trailing to Elk Ridge and swapped the loads for the
> remaining empties.
>
> Like Algoma, Ashland and Crumpler were stub-end, but the empties were
> pulled up the branch to Jones Siding, run around there, then shoved ahead.
> Ashland was delivered first, leaving the loads for pick up on the way back
> down from Crumpler.
>
> Crumpler, aka Zenith, was steep with five, ten-car delivery tracks that
> made it particularly tedious and dangerous. With no radios to stop him, the
> rear brakeman rode the drawhead and jerked the angle cock open to stop. The
> middle brakeman made the cut while the rear brakeman set brakes, watching
> for the next cut to get on and stop them. Tipplemen, called "droppers",
> would help set brakes. Every load had brakes on and if they were set out on
> the main track, every brake had to be put back on.
>
> Loads were usually blocked at the tipples and both east and west loads
> were set out on Elk Ridge and North Fork storage tracks, the main track, or
> in the yard upon returning to Eckman.
>
> The North Fork mine run became First Vivian out of Bluefield when Eckman
> closed in 1951. "V1" would leave Bluefield with a 2000 in reverse, a cab on
> the pilot, and usually ran light. Empties were waiting on the Elk Ridge and
> North Fork storage tracks and Byrd Yard as before, but west loads were set
> off in Eckman Yard and it returned with east loads. If it was running close
> on time (16 hours) or Bluefield was (usually) unable to take short trains,
> the east loads were set off at Flat Top Yard and it ran light on to
> Bluefield.
>
> Sometimes the daylight job put empties in at Algoma, but the loads would
> store there until the night job could pull them. Occasionally, North
> Fork/V1 would deliver Dan's Branch, but time-slipped.
>
> Non-coal work included an occasional boxcar to the company store at
> Algoma. 84 would set off refrigerator cars of meat on the North Fork Middle
> Track about 1am every Monday morning for the North Fork Passenger Run to
> spot at the Wilson, Armour and Swift packing plants. After the passenger
> run was cut off, V1 would get called early at 4am (usually 8am) to spot the
> cars.
>
> Grant Carpenter
>
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