On a cold and dreary night, crossties with rails freshly pulled sit spread apart on the ROW of the former N&W Mate Creek Branch constructed off the Pocahontas District mainline to access coal mines near Red Jacket. In Norfolk Southern's push to reduce costs and rid of unused infrastructure, contractors have begun salvaging unused & abandoned rail lines and sidings to reduce tax costs to the railroad. Crews will begin pulling the track up the Mate Creek watershed along with other unused trackage in the region over the next few months.. where that track will go, is anyone's guess.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
