Appalachian Railfanning in Kenova, West Virginia: Where the N&W Meets the C&O.

Hello everyone. Before I begin this intro, I accidentally misspelled "Appalachian" with "Appalacian." I'm usually pretty good with my spelling of locations, but I only noticed my error after publishing the video. Regardless, I'm positive that the quality and action of this video will overlook this small error.

Last week, I took a first-time roadtrip and railfanning adventure to Kenova, West Virginia. Kenova is a small town just west of Huntington along the Ohio River, and is a rather unique town as it borders two other states; Kentucky to the west and Ohio to the North. This town is one of many small towns along the Ohio River in the Appalachian Ohio region where industry dominated over a century ago. Though some of the industry is gone, the legacy remains as evident with the railroad lines around the town.

Kenova is in the heart of coal country, as the two railroads that dominated the town crossed their paths here: the Norfolk and Western (the N&W) and the Chesapeake and Ohio (the C&O). The two railroads dominated the coal industry in this town, and even to this day, their successor railroads (Norfolk Southern and CSX) still carry coal, but also carry a number of other commodities as coal has taken a downturn in recent years. In response to a changing economy, Norfolk Southern has renovated the Norfolk and Western mainline (or as NS calls it, the Pocahontas District) to accommodate intermodal traffic between Columbus, Ohio, and Norfolk, Virginia, as well as regular manifest freight between the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. The major landmark in this town and the main reason I ventured to Kenova was to view the NS trains coming over the massive steel bridge crossing the Ohio, the largest double-track steel bridge of it's kind in the region.

Today was a bit of a day of opposites for both railroads. CSX dominated the morning action with five trains within the first three hours I was there. The day started off in a most appropriate way with a coal train heading back in to West Virginia to pick up more loads from the mines. Following the coal train, CSX sent it's "super-local" train H750, one of a handful of scheduled trains to run the line. Fun fact: H750, it's counterpart H751, and the local trains are the only scheduled trains to run the CSX line as all other trains (i.e., coal, tanker trains, and grain) run on the as-needed basis. H750 is known as the "super-local" as it runs all the way from Russell, Kentucky, to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and H751, its counterpart, runs in the opposite direction between the respective cities. After it passed through, two of the many grain trains that take this route passed through and met just west of town on the old C&O bridge where the line passes into Kentucky. The last CSX train of the morning was the Ashland-Huntington local heading east to Huntington on its daily journey.

Norfolk Southern was particularly quiet in the morning with just one train; the Herzog ballast special heading north back into Ohio. NS was doing maintenance on the bridge all throughout the morning, and thus no trains came through. Interestingly enough, the local railfans who were also watching trains that day told me the mornings are typically a bit slower as the bulk of the daytime traffic for Norfolk Southern comes in the afternoon, and the morning typically sees just coal and as-needed trains. As one may expect, this was the case on this day. The first two NS trains of the afternoon were an eastbound coal train and a westbound tanker train. Interestingly, as NS trains traversed the mainline, the local NS trains worked down below on the CSX main, making some rather prime photo and video opportunities. NS followed up with intermodal 217, one of the six intermodal trains (217, 218, 233, 234, 236, and 29G) to work the mainline.

Following 217, NS sent its cavalcade of scheduled trains. On that note, CSX also sent a westbound loaded coal train as well, the first CSX train of the entire afternoon. The afternoon was pretty much a reverse of the morning action; Norfolk Southern dominating the action while CSX was quiet. The afternoon and the great weather provided ample opportunities to catch trains traversing the bridge. Norfolk Southern sent intermodal trains 218, 233, and 236, along with a pair of manifest trains. The second manifest train was by far the catch of the day, as it featured a number of engines, a DPU, and best of all, a GP38-2 mother-and slug combo with Operation Lifesaver paintscheme. A pretty good way to end the action for the day for Norfolk Southern. CSX would send one final train, its Ashland-Huntington local on its way back to Ashland, which did some switching on the side tracks NS did earlier in the day. After the local finished doing its business and headed off, I called it a day.

Overall, it was a pretty good day of railfanning for my first time in Kenova. I'll certainly be back again. Thanks for watching, and enjoy the video!

-N&W475