As the evening light fades on the Elkhorn Grade, a DPU grain train is shoved over the Pokey at Powhatan.

Conrail quality. Sold out! An empty gondola currently used for tie storage, with an oldtimers inscription adding commentary to the scene.

Crawling out of a sump, the first half of 77G prepares to weigh in motion at the scalehouse and then smoke it downhill for 47 miles to John Sevier yard with 52 loaded coal hoppers. Power for the s... (more)

With power for the second cut idling in the middle siding, the first half creeps forward as wheel loaders do their job to the rear.

Hoping to make the crossing in time and with an arm stuck out for extra velocity and momentum, a Jeep crosses in front of half a loaded unit train of coal pointed downhill. The coal is destined fo... (more)

Preparing to load a unit train at Kopper Glo off the Clearfork Branch, NS spots mtys under the 200 foot tall coal loadout silo which holds about 8,000 tons of cleaned and prepped coal. They load i... (more)

Let the loading begin. With 8,000 tons of coal above our heads, the first mpty is loaded from the control room at the Kopper Glo prep plant.

Not having seen action in a decade and with rail made in 1923, a switch stands sentinel on the abandoned and remote Dismal Branch below Jewell Ridge. The switch controlled what once was the Seng C... (more)

Tied down in a snowstorm, loaner BNSF motors hold back a unit train already loaded and headed down to Weller Yard.

Tied down in a snowstorm, a unit train dwarfs a huge Cat truck used in the stripmines above.

Going in, going out. Powder River Basin coal leaves the rolling prarie as another unit train of mtys heads north to load.

With four trains either loading or on the Joint Line, the Powder River Basin stays busy as usual. You can rest assured that there are plenty more over the rise, what with over 120 unit trains a da... (more)

With two helpers on the rear, another unit train of mtys returns to the Powder River Basin for coal. Draglines and loadouts can be seen on the horizon.

Home on the range. Surrounded by prarie skies and mounds of reddog, a helper set idles away beside the spur leading to Black Thunder mine and loadout.

With nearly a foot of new snow on the ground, three motors take mtys back to the coalfields of Harlan County.