North Fork Hollow Mine Run
NW Mailing List
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Thu Dec 4 10:08:18 EST 2025
Jim,
Again, the typical was atypical on the Division. No two branch lines
were operated the same way. As opposed to a local freight or an LCL box
on the passenger run, the North Fork operation handled mixed traffic on
the mine run, and what little LCL in the combine of the passenger run
before its demise in 1950. One notable exception was a gon of sand that
went to Cherokee every Monday, shoved ahead of the Class M on the
passenger run.
Grant Carpenter
On 12/3/2025 9:10 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Most company stores had railroad sidings and warehouses. They were
> fully stocked dept stores that sold clothing shoes, furniture, animal
> feed, etc. Mules were e also delivered to company stables as well as
> feed. Mining equipment, mine timbers, building supplies, and sand were
> also delivered to company yards, and possible farm animals such as
> pigs, cows and chickens, long before they were advertised on WCKY
> Cincinnati (1929-1994.
>
> Attached is a photo of the company store at Filbert on Sand Lick
> Branch. The store was served by a small stub end siding across the
> creek from the store. On the left side of the 1925 photo note the
> freight house, a bridge across the creek with a small railroad leading
> to the larger store warehouse. It appears the small railroad track had
> been paved over in 1925 when the road was originally paved. The store
> used a small cart on the rails to transfer freight from the boxcars.
>
> The other photo shows a different store view along with the railroad
> siding.
>
> Alex Schust
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf
> of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 3, 2025 8:36 AM
> *To:* NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Subject:* Re: North Fork Hollow Mine Run
> Thanks, Alex,
> So, more than just hoppers on the branch! Did all those company
> stores and mining operations get their merchandise in box cars? Ever
> anything unusual? Did those get delivered on the passenger runs or
> the mine runs?
> Jim Cochran
>
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2025 at 8:21 AM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List
> <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
> The track between the two switches was 130 feet long. The 328-foot
> upper stub track served two stables that probably received boxcars
> of hay.
>
> Alex Schust
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on
> behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 2, 2025 10:45 PM
> *To:* nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> *Subject:* Re: North Fork Hollow Mine Run
> 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>
>> <mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing
>> List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 2, 2025 7:44 AM
>> *To:* NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>> <mailto: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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