BIG SANDY SUBDIVISION (CSX) (DIVISION WHEN C&O)

[landnrailroader]

Kenny must be one of us that is a glutton for punishment. He asked me about the Big Sandy, Kanawha, and New River Subdivisions with branches. Well as it happened I had already done tracks and some roads for the Big Sandy, so now I have extended it north (railroad east) to Big Sandy Junction and will continue from there to the yard at Ashland, KY, and I will do the Kanawha Sub. as far as the west end of Huntington which brings up one of those do, or not do, questions. The N&W(NS) is visible to C&O(CSX) trains from Louisa, KY to just south of Big Sandy Jct., about 20 miles and there is a physical connection at Kenova, WV. Include it, or not? Another reason to include it is that the massive double track trestle & truss bridge over the Ohio R. also crosses over the CSX track. (For 6 years, I lived about 3 miles further east and we could hear the rumble of BIG_SANDY_JCT_WEST.jpg BIG_SANDY_JCT_EAST.jpgevery train that went over that trestle.) I have included all branches I could find data on including two that are long gone, and one more recently abandoned. The extension into southwest Virginia through the Pine Mountain tunnel only lasted 4 years, 1946-1950. The branch to near Butcher Holler in Kentucky died around 1950. Finally, the more than 40 miles branch out of Paintsville went to R.J.Corman 20 years or so ago and that operator abandoned it around 5 years ago. It is now a hiking trail. The image with markers shows Big Sandy Jct. looking east and the other is looking west at the group of #15 crossovers.

Jerry Sullivan

[landnrailroader]

After completing about 5 miles of track westward to Ashland Yard, I started east. The first 3 miles or so on the WV side of the Big Sandy R. are busy to say the least. The main line runs east-west through Cereo, WV and Kenova, WV. Kenova has some petroleum tanks near the river where gasoline and other fuel can be transferred from barge to train or truck or vice-versa and then this track turns back to the east and paralles the Ohio R. through Ceredo but right at the point between the two communities, there is a connecting track back to/from the CSX Main and at about the same spot there is another line connecting the CSX lines to the NS yard at Kenova which is actually on the 12-pole branch that served a active mine near East Lynn. Most of the line is the original N&W main that was bypassed by the line along the Tug Fork/Big Sandy around 1900. The track to the mine was installed just before I went to work in Huntington for CSX in 1980. So in this image, the line to the near right goes to the rivers edge & to the huge Ceredo Coal Transfer area where coal is stored on the ground and then sent by barge to power plants along the river. To the left is the line to the NS yard, and in the far right is the line to the pertroleum area. I will flesh this out more if I continue to do the Kanawah Sub. I haven't looked at it lately but a couple years back there was a clip showing work at the East Lynn mine, which is a long wall operation on YouTube. All of Wayne County & Cabell County sits atop a large bed of coal.

Jerry CEREDO_AREA01.jpg