Climbing To Elkhorn
To date this short one day visit was the only time I got to visit the famed former Norfolk and Western mainline, now Norfolk Southern's Pocahontas District. I really need to get back here some day!
An eastbound coal load behind a pair of EMDs is passing beneath the vintage N&W era color position light signals at MP 377.1 as they climb the 1.4 grade and cross the line from McDowell County into Mercer County. The slide fences guard the approach to Elkhorn Tunnel whose west portal is just behind me. That 7100 ft double track bore under Flat Top Mountain opened in 1950 along with a five mile long bypass of the historic 2.5% Elkhorn grade replacing a single track tunnel dating from 1889 and leading to the shut down of N&W's 50 miles of electrictrification.
Near Bramwell, West Virginia
Monday June 1, 2015
Climbing To Elkhorn
To date this short one day visit was the only time I got to visit the famed former Norfolk and Western mainline, now Norfolk Southern's Pocahontas District. I really need to get back here some day!
An eastbound coal load behind a pair of EMDs is passing beneath the vintage N&W era color position light signals at MP 377.1 as they climb the 1.4 grade and cross the line from McDowell County into Mercer County. The slide fences guard the approach to Elkhorn Tunnel whose west portal is just behind me. That 7100 ft double track bore under Flat Top Mountain opened in 1950 along with a five mile long bypass of the historic 2.5% Elkhorn grade replacing a single track tunnel dating from 1889 and leading to the shut down of N&W's 50 miles of electrictrification.
Near Bramwell, West Virginia
Monday June 1, 2015