Making it's way over Hickory Creek, the daily Q539 rumbles south toward Duff Mountain. With four clunker motors, it won't need help over the grade this day.

Throwing sand on the iron, a 132 car long mixed train crawls up the grade at Oaks, with PPDs Habersham just around the corner.

Being called a beast by crew and trains on each siding, 132 car long Q539 rumbles south and gains speed for Duff Mountain. It will still need the helper crew, normally used for coal only.

A rare sight on the KD, engine 676 begins the assault on the grade over Duff Mountain. Moments later the second motor would fail though the crew would keep going south to Knoxville with one motor ... (more)

A beautiful sounding older ABF K5LA up front where all horns once stood tall and proud rightfully still belong! Q537 is southbound at MP 202.7 on the KD Sub

Bursting out into the last light of day, Q539 snakes thru the many rock cuts in the Hickory Creek gorge. Rockslide detector fences line the cuts to warn of slides throughout the area.

Deep within the confines of the Hickory Creek gorge, Q539 pulls a hodgepodge of flats, cars, and tankers thru the #2 tunnel. One has to wonder how this line was chiseled thru rock over a hundred y... (more)

CSX Q539-26 at KC Junction in Covington, Kentucky with the skyline of Cincinnati in the background.

CSX Q539-16 crosses the former C&O Ohio River Bridge southbound from Ohio into Kentucky on it's way south to Corbin and passes the Carew Tower in downtown Cincinnati.

Sporting an eclectic mix of power thru the rugged Hickory Creek gorge, the daily Q539 ambles out of Tunnel #1 enroute to Knoxville. An SD40-2 and slug bring up the rear of the power.

CSXT 8361 approaches a crosssing with southbound manifest Q539.

CSX 7315 on Q539 newly painted into the "Dark Future" color scheme

Crossing over Coal Creek, which drains a large section of the Cumberland Mountains and the coalfields, Q539 towers over Lake City. The NS Jellico Branch is on the lower, smaller bridge in the back... (more)

Q539 eases south just below Lake City, formerly known as Coal Creek before Norris Dam was constructed. The house or storage track on the right has a manufacture date of 1922, the oldest I've seen ... (more)

Q539 with bright shiny power bursts out of the Hickory Creek #2 tunnel, crossing over Hickory Creek in seconds.