FlanaryRon-LN7042-CorbinKY 6-24-78
The L&N Railroad was hurtin' in 1978. The company was literally swamped with an avalanche of bituminous coal traffic, most of it destined for fossil fuel power plants throughout the southeastern part of the US. There weren't enough crews, cars, locomotives, available track space, or pretty much anything---plus the railroad had literally been pounded into the ground by train after train of overloaded coal hoppers. Derailments were weekly, if not daily sometimes. Some of the best railroaders in the world would throw up their hands at times at the impossibility of it all.
On this particular day--June 24, 1978--I remember one of the division management friends making this comment: "If we have more than 13 trains running between Corbin and Knoxville (single track CTC, with a pusher grade in the middle), we're in trouble. At this moment there are 15, with three more called and ready to go. A southbound just got a knuckle on Duff Mountain, so things are really stacked up there. The congestion might ease after midnight, but it's too early to tell. I really need to go home and get some sleep."
FlanaryRon-LN7042-CorbinKY 6-24-78
The L&N Railroad was hurtin' in 1978. The company was literally swamped with an avalanche of bituminous coal traffic, most of it destined for fossil fuel power plants throughout the southeastern part of the US. There weren't enough crews, cars, locomotives, available track space, or pretty much anything---plus the railroad had literally been pounded into the ground by train after train of overloaded coal hoppers. Derailments were weekly, if not daily sometimes. Some of the best railroaders in the world would throw up their hands at times at the impossibility of it all.
On this particular day--June 24, 1978--I remember one of the division management friends making this comment: "If we have more than 13 trains running between Corbin and Knoxville (single track CTC, with a pusher grade in the middle), we're in trouble. At this moment there are 15, with three more called and ready to go. A southbound just got a knuckle on Duff Mountain, so things are really stacked up there. The congestion might ease after midnight, but it's too early to tell. I really need to go home and get some sleep."