Mine runs 2 Re: loco motions

[NW Mailing List]

Good morning all. I know that my name will not be familiar to most here and
I hope that this isn't repeated information. My father grew up in Coalwood
in the 30's and 40's and based on his recollections this is how the mine
run came in there. A train would come in the morning with about 100
empties. This run originated from Iaeger and I don't know if there was 1
locomotive or 2. Dad did say it was one of the smaller locomotives, but we
never figured out exactly what came in. The train crew spent the day
organizing the full hoppers from the previous day before heading back out
in the afternoon. Once the train reached the mainline heading back to
Iaeger, the south/eastbound hoppers were dropped on a siding to wait for a
train heading that direction. The rest of the hoppers continued into
Iaeger. In 1956, the Coalwood mine was connected underground to the mine at
Caretta and all train operations to Coalwood stopped. I'm sure Alex Schust
and/or Ed Painter can either correct or add more detail if wanted.

Tom Fulton
Waynesville, NC

On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 10:10 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Were there any points on the Pokey, aside from Bluefield and Williamson,
> where significant amounts of coal left and empties returned?  One
> possibility that crossed my mind was Norton.
> Jim Cochran
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 6:47 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>> I’m fascinated to read the discussion regarding switching coal
>> operations on Tug Fork and Dry Fork.  I was a 3rd shift and then 2nd shift
>> yardmaster at Wilcoe in 1978 and 1979.  Coming from the management training
>> program in Roanoke, I had no experience with operations to suggest what was
>> reasonable and what was not if my supervisors didn’t tell me otherwise.
>>
>> One morning we got a telephone call from Jenkin Jones with their order
>> for the day.  They knew we had 60 short loads destined their way, probably
>> having come from Bishop on Dry Fork.  I don’t remember now but there were
>> probably mty’s for them as well, but these had to be distributed among all
>> the mines and the car distributors office in Bluefield would have told us
>> how many Jenkin Jones was to get.  I gave the 2nd Tug their orders,
>> including the direction to deliver 60 short loads to Jenkin Jones, and when
>> he came in at 7am, turned over the Yardmasters seat to my mentor, Fred
>> Richards, and went home to bed.  I had no idea what I had just done.
>>
>> The 1st and 2nd Tugs were each assigned three SD units.  I’d grown up in
>> Harrisonburg, watching a “big” train on the Chesapeake Western use all
>> three T6’s.  It never occurred to me that three SD’s could only handle 20
>> short loads up the mountain from Anawalt to Jenkin Jones.  They had to
>> triple the hill that day, and I was informed in no uncertain terms of my
>> error the next morning.
>>
>> Ignorance is bliss, until it isn’t.
>>
>> David Ray
>>
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