As the sun rises and the fog lifts, A short 1,900 ton CSX M652 Crawls north through the town of Spruce Pine NC, with a duo of Rebuilt SD70MAC's leading the way.
The rear DPUs on N759 shove hard on the loaded coal train through Spruce Pine.
The Blue Ridge is ablaze in Fall color as W016 rail train navigates the former Clinchfield mainline between Kingsport and Spartanburg.
CSX B651 makes it's long descent down the loops, with a surprise UP leader, and a BNSF rear train pusher.
CSX #911 (Honoring First Responders) leads Q694 as it snakes through the Quartz Corporation's facility in Spruce Pine, NC bound for Russell.
Empty Cross (SC) coal train CSX U307 exits the town of Spruce Pine, NC, as they make their way to the coal fields for another load of black diamonds.
Northbound weed sprayer train (W053-25) exits the north portal of the second Washburn tunnel on the former Clinchfield loops.
Northbound Q692 ascends the Clinchfield's loops at Rocky. The train is leaving the Second Rocky tunnel and about to enter First Rocky. The train extends past the siding in the distance.
Q693 winds its way to the summit just ahead at Altapass, passing one of the few on-line customers: the Quartz Corporation at the waypoint once known as Floatation.
The DPU on N312, coal loads for Duke Energy's Cliffside Steam Station on the Brice Spur, crosses the Toe River and passes the elderly Clinchfield signal at NE Toe River.
Empty ethanol from Charlotte passes through Spruce Pine, NC on it's return trip to Clearing yard in Chicago.
A southbound coal train bound for South Carolina pops out of Vance Tunnel at Altapass, NC as the first rays of sun pop over the Blue Ridge.
A northbound empty hopper train heads across the Toe River at the north end of the Toe River siding, still home to a set of Clinchfield signals.
On it's inaugural mainline run, CSX's First Responders Unit leads freight train Q693 south down the Clinchfield Loops as it pops out of the 2,211 ft. Lower Pine Ridge Tunnel and will enter the 341... (more)
N760 pops out of Ridge Tunnel, headed South into the Clinchfield loops on their way to Brice
