I just recently finished reading J. David Ingles’ search for the average American diesel in 1982. In classic Ingles fashion, he found the diesel and in the process of showing his work to determine what “average” is, accounted for nearly every type of locomotive that polished the rails of the nation during his search period.
Why am I telling you this? Not because I saw B&O 3802 working…no, I’m a little young for that unfortunately. I’m telling you this because in reading that tale I began to think of what I’d been fortunate to see out on the high iron and this particular encounter stood out as a most noteworthy one indeed.
January 10, 2023 started out as a normal day and by all accounts there was nothing spectacular about it. That is until about 10:30pm or so when a check of Facebook revealed information that was too interesting to ignore, Amtrak engine 145 was leading the eastbound Cardinal, train 50. 145 was painted for Amtrak’s 40th anniversary in 2011 and pays homage to the phase III paint scheme, which is for my money the most iconic paint scheme Amtrak has ever had.
I had been witness to 145 before, although it was before I would call myself a railfan and I was not fully appreciative of what I was seeing when I filmed the 2016 New River Train under the New River Gorge Bridge.
Fast forward to 2023 and I was fully aware of the notoriety of this locomotive and had every intention of getting a proper shot of this thing.
The location would be different though, as there was but one place I really wanted to be, the ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia. Population: 4. At the time if you set up in the right spot in Thurmond, the engine would come to rest right smack in front of your lens. What could be better than that? Armed with this information and the knowledge that 145 was leading, I went to bed dreaming of the perfect shot. I had no idea what I would encounter the next day.
Every time I go to Thurmond there’s always some thought in the back of my mind wondering if RJ Corman was running while I was out, either bringing a loaded coal train down or taking empties back up to the mine. I got my answer as I crossed the ex C&O Loup Creek Sub for the last time before entering Thurmond when there sat a CSX coal hopper along with about 109 other friends. Eureka!
No, this wasn’t the unusual encounter, I’d seen countless coal trains before, but I knew that I’d at least get two trains today, sticking around for Corman to leave once Amtrak had passed.
I came across the Thurmond bridge and could see the power ahead, two big CSX 6 axle units…but wait…one of them is different…it’s an EMD! That fact alone would have made this an unusual catch, as the CSX roster is largely populated by locomotives built by General Electric. This however was no SD70MAC, this was something extra rare, an ST70AH, which is what CSX called the tier 4 compliant SD70ACe. After parking the car and knowing I had some time to process what I was seeing, I gave CSX 8906 a good look over as she sat idle, waiting to re enter the New River Sub.
CSX ordered 10 of these behemoths new from EMD in 2019. I first learned about them from the YouTube channel Distant Signal, who filmed them in Florida’s Bone Valley. West Virginia is about as far away from the Bone Valley phosphate regions as you can get so that only added to my shock at seeing this beast. In that shock, I completely missed another good sign for me…another train! Waiting on the number one main was an empty coal train that I did not get a symbol for. The New River sub goes from double track to single track at Sewell, milepost 397.5 and returns to double track through Thurmond, milepost 391.1, before going single again from Claremont at MP 388.3 to Prince, MP 380.0. We were all waiting on the same thing, Amtrak.
The empty coal train had four GE locomotives, what appeared to be three GEVOs and one AC44. About the only thing notable about that was the AC44 was still in YN2 paint. Soon enough, up came another GE…the train we were all waiting on. Amtrak 50 slowed to a stop right in front of my camera, I got the right spot! No passengers got on or off the train today so it was a quick stop, with the engineer on 145 making some noise for the construction workers working on the ADA compliant platform that Amtrak now uses when performing work in Thurmond.
After Amtrak passed I kept waiting to see which train would move first. The answer was neither. Before I even had time to think another train came around the corner, again led by a GE, in fact a straight GEVO pair of CSX 3015 and 3293 leading grain bound for who knows where.
After the grain train passed I again was wondering who would move first and again I didn’t get an answer. Except this time after stepping away from my spot on the at the time Thurmond platform towards the quieter train with the tier 4, I could just barely make out a train calling signals and it sounded like he said “Rush Run” which would be Rush Run Siding to the west of town. If true, it meant another train was on the way. This was shaping up to be my kind of day.
Sure enough, just a few minutes later a coal train came racing through town with an EMD second. This time a MAC! Combined with the GE up front, CSX 163, this truly was a consist right out of the 1990s…and it made this 90s kid smile.
By now I was staring to wonder just how many trains the dispatcher had lined up for the post Amtrak parade. After a few minutes of waiting I learned the parade was over and it was time to empty out the tiny town of Thurmond. First to leave were our empties, with their big GE motors roaring to life to get the big train moving again. Even empty, 200+ cars is a lot of train and it took some time to get up to track speed and some time to pass my camera, almost 9 minutes in fact.
With the main now clear, the Corman loads, running as a Z549, entered the main, our noted visitor riding second but drawing all of my attention. Some ten minutes later the train had left Corman rails in its entirety and was now on CSX property. A quick backup move down the number one track to tie down and the Corman crew had completed another cycle. Just as it has since 1873 though, the cycle never ends, with another 110 empties waiting in Rush Run Siding. Having never witnessed a Corman train leaving from Thurmond before, I figured I’d stay a few more minutes and add that to my list of things I’ve seen.
Soon enough the empties were well on their way back to mine and I was on my way home. Not long after this experience I got word that CSX had stricken the ST70AH’s from the roster, making me ever more grateful for what is no doubt one of the most welcome encounters in this ghost town.