Two trains await crews in front of the old coaling tower amid some nice fall colors.

How hot was it? Too hot for the brakeman to keep his shirt on.

I arrived in Bluefield in the middle of August when most coal mines are shut down for vacation. So a cut of over 20 cabooses was laid out in front of me. So go ahead choose your favorite.

N & W preferred running diesels long hood first. This made a big loco motive seem even bigger.

A Richard Beal photo: Coasting through Bluefield, WV yard, a set of two SD40's bracketing a SD45 heads toward the engine house

One of two rail grinders working out of Bluefield, WV, RG 318 runs eastbound through Hales Bottom.

With the fall colors slowly disappearing, a set of light power heads west, most likely to one the mines on NS Pocahontas District.

Two Pokey relects, a C39-8 and a coaling tower.