Category: Pickin’ the points

by Bill Thomas, editor

For 16 years now, I’ve watched the Morganfield branch (or what’s left of it to Dotiki Mine) host hundreds of coal trains bringing the powerful mineral topside to help power our country.  Little did I know that when that last train rolled out from under the tipple it would signal the end of a 52-year stretch of mining in one facility.  I was 4 years old when they started. 

Since the late Dennis Carnal took me on a tour of western Hopkins and Webster counties almost 15 years ago, I’ve been fascinated with history of mining that contributed to the success of the branch from Madisonville to Diamond.  Now as I drive school buses in the area and cross it at Happy Lane, Columbia School House Rd, Bernard St., Schmetzer’s Crossing, and SR 814, in see rust collecting on the shiny rails.  The stacks of old ties bundled for re-use at home & garden centers and landscaping companies, the brand new asphalt crossings mentioned above speak of the volatile and often unexpected turns made in the coal industry these days. 

No matter the reason, dirty coal, economic imbalance, or the continued battle against the coal industry in general, the trains are gone and now I wish I’d ventured out and taken more pictures.  How we are lulled by the continuous sight of the passing train – thinking, “I’ll catch it next time when the weather is better or I have more time or when the light is better – or when I have my good camera instead of my iPhone.” 

But, the great thing about being in a group like The Western Kentucky Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society is we are closely connected with those who often carry a good camera and are purposeful about getting those treasured photos.  So here’s my tribute to those in the chapter who get the shots – good light or bad.  Thank you for sharing your work on our website and social media outlets.  Thanks for burning the gas and taking the time so the rest of  us can enjoy the memories. 

My first real job out of college was with the Boy Scouts of America.  Yes, I was a professional scout.  Now get the images of being paid to camp out, go to pinewood derby races, and start fires with two sticks out of your minds.  Professional scouting takes on a whole different set of activities, mostly servicing existing scout groups or units, starting new units, and raising money.  As I stared at these empty text boxes on my computer thinking about what to write, it came to me that those brief years of my BSA experience contained a lot of good railroad memories. 

I arrived in LaGrange, GA, in the spring of 1988 – 25 years old, single, no mortgage, and about 60 lbs. lighter than present.  I had to cover two counties, Troup and Franklin, in west-central GA.  Actually, I was almost as west as you can go in GA.  Fishing was great on West Point Lake.  LaGrange was the intersecting point of the former Atlanta & West Point RR’s line from Montgomery, AL to Atlanta, and former Seaboard Coastline’s (I think former ACL) route between Waycross, GA, and Birmingham, AL.  I  also had to make weekly trips to Columbus, GA, where are council office was located.  This brought me alongside the former Southern branch to Pine Mountain, GA (Callaway Gardens), and it origin at Columbus and Southern’s line from Columbus to Birmingham. 

Unfortunately, CSX had just completed some re-routing of their inherited lines.  The Seaboard rose on a steady grade coming in on the east side of town and flew over the A&WP via a plate girder bridge, still in place when I arrived but without rails.  The two lines shared an interchange yard on the east side near this location which was mostly empty with the exception of a few cars for local delivery to lumber outlets and textile giant Milliken Mills.  Today, it’s completely gone and a wye has been installed between inbound tracks.  The railroads once ran side by side through town, but now join as one on the west then separate on the east. 

Now, what this created was a fantastic bottle neck for train watching.  In great CSX fashion, the two roads joined on each side of town, but then entered a double main through high-speed switches (two motors to throw the points).  Often, we could see two to four trains from one point.  I often enjoyed pacing a 60 mph sand train heading north out of LaGrange toward Atlanta. 

My regret is that cameras where not as readily available as they are these days.  So, I have almost no pictorial recollections of all this fun I crammed in about 24 months of my young days.  Below is a screen shot from an online street view app.  Hasn’t changed much except CSX finally came around and extended the 2nd main past the west/south split to avoid the bottle necking.  It used to be located behind the camera, just beyond the street crossing.

 

 

Opinions and Stories by Bill Thomas, Editor

Thanks to my wife Angela, I have been given access to the former screened-in porch that I enclosed several years ago so our young boys could have a play room.  Well, play has evolved into video games and electric guitars in their bedroom.  The room has served mainly as a cat litter box facility and a place for my backyard container plants to find refuge in the winter. 

Upon receiving home dispatcher permission to enter the block, I quickly set up a 6-foot plastic folding table for a temporary work space.  Soon I was installing digital decoders in several of my locomotives which have been in storage for years – some for decades.  My soldering skills were revived as was my excitement of being able to “run” a train somewhere again in HO scale. 

Here’s my “point” for this month’s article.  The thought of moving these blue (Athern) and yellow box (Atlas) older locomotives into the digital command control (DCC) ages was daunting – but I’m a persistent man.  Overhearing sidebar talk at meetings about DCC from our own Steve Miller and Keith Kittinger, I knew from where my help would come.  And sure enough, I’m about to install my 5th and 6th decoders as I write. 

My next step was to begin preparations for painting some of my “foreign road” equipment to bring them into the L&N/Family Lines clan I have envisioned in the years 1970-1985ish.  Some train smack talk with Keith, Tony Clark, and former chapter member Bill Heaton, put me on track and today I bought my first 3 bottles of paint for the air brush I’ve never had out of the box. 

All this to say that one of the most valuable elements of being in a club, historical society chapter, or other organization of like-minded people, is the range and volume of helpful information and pure “assistance” and encouragement that can come from friends who have already tread the path before you.  Keeping us from making some of the mistakes they might have made along the way. 

So, with a grateful heart, I say, “Thanks!” to those who continue to work, play, and strive to increase the quality of our experience together.  Keep up the good work.  I hope to pass the favor on to someone new down the tracks. 

 

When I was a teenager, as now, I was very much involved in my church, First Baptist, Ellijay, GA.  My church established a relationship with a small Baptist Church start in Logan, West Virginia about 1978.  I was then fortunate to travel to the Logan area three consecutive summers for week-long mission trips there.  I caught my first sight of a “Chessie” system paint scheme when we crossed the Big Sandy River on I-64, there around the Ashland production facility at the state line.  I was pumped! 

We arrived in Logan and I was wide-eyed!  I’d never seen so many “diverging routes” in one place.  Everywhere we went, there were tracks alongside the roads.  Not just spindly 70 lb. rail, I mean nice looking track with signals! 

As we went about our work, we set up at Rum Junction Baptist Church, just southeast of downtown Logan.  Now a location named for a junction had to be a railroad hotspot – and it was.  I’d never seen unit coal trains until then. Lots of C&O paint still around, a little B&O here and there, then those rainbow-like Chessie diesels with that oddball outline shape on the inside of the C.  My only other view of these colorful creatures had been on the pages of a Christmas catalog.  Did I mention there were lots of yellow cabooses???  With cupolas, not bay windows!

I don’t remember when I learned that strange shape in the C had it’s beginnings as an artistic logo for the C&O of Chessie the kitten.  “Sleep like a kitten on the C&O.”  Certainly my hometown L&N/Family Lines or the down-to-business sleek black and aluminum Southern locomotives paled in comparison to the Chessie.  I do have some old photographs and pictures, but not nearly enough. 

Seems I always get around to pontificating on the subject of taking more photos of the rail action around us.  I guess it’s how I deal with the regret of not doing it enough when I had the chance.  Seems I still love to take that worn-out shot trackside – totally uncreative.  But, I hold out hope that it may prove beneficial in a historical way someday. 

With the ease of seeing by satellite that area in West Virginia where friends and I created so many great memories of mission work and trains, I have lately discovered that many of those roadside tracks are gone and that most of the ones remaining dead-end into what looks to be inactive mining facilities.  Peach Creak Yard holds many empty and possibly stored coal hoppers. 

Now, here’s the benefit of having a network of friends with the same interests.  Thanks to Fred Ripley and his knowledge of the C&O and connected rail lines, I know some of those trains passing through Rum Jct, were possibly bound for connection with the Virginian or N&W several miles south at Gilbert, WV.  Sadly the C&O bridge that once connected the lines is out of service.  I know where a lot of that coal from all those diverging routs was going and which direction. 

SO, KEEP TAKING PICTUES, AND STAY IN TOUCH WITH  YOUR RAILROAD BUDDIES!  You never know what little enjoyable nuggets of information you might stumble across.  See related photo on the following page in Photo Gallery.

 

Opinions and Stories by Bill Thomas, Editor

Here today, gone tomorrow!  We’ve all heard this saying at some point.  There are so many railroad related things I wish I had taken pictures of when I was carrying around my 35mm Yashica FR camera in the late 70s and early 80s.  I was fortunate to get a couple of photos of the Family Lines/L&N GP40 I claim as my first cab ride.  But, oh, the things I missed within 100 miles of me; two train stations in Chattanooga, my native city.  The yard at Elizabeth (Marietta) GA, where the Hook & Eye line diverged from the main Atlanta/Chattanooga/Knoxville line.  Etowah, TN, former division point and offices.  Atlanta and its variety of railroads – Family Lines, Southern, Central of Georgia, West Point Route – back when you could run around the yards without being chased out.

My “point” is, take as many photos as you can of current railroad things.  Those SD40-2s have only so many years although they seem immortal.  Have you noticed how many RR crossing lights and gates now have electronic bells instead of the “gas station” bells we’ve heard for so long?  Remember journal boxes?  Cabooses, section flags, wig wags, roof walks, stock cars, not to mention steam locomotives?  Looking at Don’s picture, above left, I wonder how much longer we can ride public passenger trains.  At one time these were items that we took for granted.   In a day of nearly unlimited photo storage and easy access to digital cameras, we should have plenty of visual records.  So get out there and shoot! 

Opinions and Stories by Bill Thomas, Editor

I WAS enthusiastically looking forward to our modular railroad layout display at Madisonville Square Mall AND I was not disappointed!  Thanks to our president Bill Farrell, Rick Bivins, Rich Hane, Jim Kemp, Wally, and others who helped set up, maintain, and take down the displays.  I am of the opinion that this was a fantastic “touch point” for us with our community. 

Thanks also to those who purchased and prepared modules for our display.  You can see pictures in the following pages of the newsletter. 

If room permits, I’ll include some photographs I took on our family Christmas trip to New York City, December 26-31.  We were fortunate to visit a small RR museum in Huntington, WV (pictured with museum volunteer Jim Pickett, insert), as well as the Transit Museum of NY, and The Railway Museum of Pennsylvania, in Strasburg, PA.  I can thank my wife Angela for scheduling those stops for me along with the visits to Gettysburg, Central Park NYC, and the Independence Hall area of Philadelphia.  I finally saw the Liberty Bell!

Bill Thomas, editor, The PennyRail

 

New Your Transit Museum, Brooklyn, NY

Railway Museum, Huntington, WV

Railway Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg, PA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opinions and Stories by Bill Thomas, Editor

I am enthusiastically looking forward to our modular railroad layout display at Parkway Plaza Mall this Christmas season.  I’m one of those who believes every kid should have a Lionel train set at some point in his or her life. 

In a recent conversation with a real estate client, I heard those horrible words, “I don’t know how they can stand those railroad tracks so close to the house!  I don’t want my grandchildren that close to the tracks!”  In reality, the tracks are a full city block away.  When we moved to town in 2003, I tried my best to get near the tracks, but just couldn’t find a place with enough yard.  But, occasionally I can hear three trains at a time in my back yard, so I guess it turned out ok. 

Back on track – I predict the modular layout will draw a crowd, we just need to get the word out!  So spread the news where ever you go.  If you’re a Facebook, Twitter, or other social media user, post it on your timeline or page you manage. 

I’ve enjoyed re-introducing my 10-year-old to the hobby through this project and hope we all can bring a little nostalgic happiness to those who come our way in the next few weeks.

 

I love a good spooky and maybe strange story.  This one matches my criteria, mainly because there are not many more spooky and creepy places than abandoned rail equipment and empty churches at night, after dark.

A friend sent me this story via Facebook Messenger about FDR’s secret railcar, still abandoned beneath the streets of New York City.

Grand Central’s abandoned Track 61. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office, he utilized a secret train line that connected Grand Central to the Waldorf-Astoria. The area even has a huge freight elevator that was used to fit his limousine allowing FDR to travel to and from New York City in secrecy during World War II. This was the train he used which still sits on Track 61.

I hope to return to NYC this winter to hear and see my daughter perform with the New York Choral Society on their Christmas Concert.  She’s not a soloist, she just sings in this fantastically talented ensemble.

I’ve two other things I want to see there:  The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and a Christmas window display with Lionel trains running in it.  I’m not sure that last one exists anymore, but the hunt will be fun.

Bill Thomas

Note: You can read more about this by Googling “FDR Railcar Track 61” or clicking on the link. Click play below to view a video.

I have some great news.  As most of you know, we came to Madisonville in 2003, when I answered the call to First Baptist Church to serve as their Minister of Music.  Since leaving that church in the summer of 2013, two week shy of my 10 year anniversary there, I’ve been making a living in lawn care, landscape design, real estate sales, driving a school bus, and serving as an interim music minister at First Baptist Bowling Green.

I am happy to announce that on August 28, 2016, I will begin service as the Full-time Associate Pastor/Minister of Music at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Madisonville.

It is a bitter-sweet transition as I leave a great church in Bowling Green which has helped me find the joy in music ministry again.  I often tell them, “They’ve been better for me than I could ever be for them!”

I also am sorry to leave the hard working team of professional drivers, trainers, and staff in our Hopkins County School District’s Transportation Department, led by Marcie Cox, who answered a late-night call from me needing another job to make ends meet.  I am forever grateful.

While I will be full-time at the church, I’ll be keeping my real estate license and business active for the time being.  Time will tell if I can manage the two while giving First Christian my time priority.

Thanks to all of you for your support, prayers, and kind words over the last three years of this long transition.  I look forward to continuing my work as your editor and fellow railway historian.  Whether you’re looking for a home in Madisonville or heaven, I can help.  In a pinch, I can mow your yard and drive a bus too.

Bill Thomas

Bird’s Eye View!

If you own and use a computer or smart phone, you now have access to a great tool for locating rail lines and more interestingly, abandoned rail lines.

Lately, I’ve enjoyed Elmer G. Sulzer’s Ghost Railroads of Kentucky first published in 1967, by Indiana University Press (originally by Vane A. Jones Company) which presents 23 chapters of railroads that used to be.  Chapter 18 unpacks the history of the L&N’s and IC’s adventures through Clay, Dixon, Morganfield and Henderson, KY, right in our back door.

Now back to the computer and/or smart phone.  I’ve begun to “mentally overlay” the satellite images available on sites like Google Earth and other mapping apps on Sulzer’s maps provided in the book.  The drawback to the latter is that there are no roads mapped in Sulzer’s book, just rivers, streams, county and state lines.  You have to be a little creative, but it’s fun to find some of these places on the computer screen then visit in person.  And, if you have the smart phone map app, it will  pinpoint your location as you move.

Many of you are probably familiar with this technology as am I, but I wanted to share the possibilities with those who may just be getting caught up with it.

As a side note, also included in Sulzer’s book are railroads which once served Russellville, Adairville, Gracey, Princeton, Elkton, Guthrie, Hartford, Irvington, and Falls of Rough.

Mr. Sulzer also published Ghost Railroads of Tennessee and Ghost Railroads of Indiana. I’m looking forward to browsing through both of these in the near future.  All are available on Amazon.com.

Bill Thomas…

 

Greetings all!  I hope you will join us Monday, June 20, 7pm, here at our home at 1025 Lakewood Dr, Madisonville.  As President Bill stated above, Blair’s family will be supplying the burgers for my grill Monday so come hungry.  Just bring a lawn chair and all the other stuff will be provided.  If you’d like to take a dip in the pool, feel free to come early at 6.  I believe happy hour will begin at that point as well.

Informal Program: If you have any G gauge equipment you’d like to run on the garden tracks, feel free to bring it along.  Bob McCracken is scheduled to have his live-steam Shay here and it’s always a treat to see it chugging among the flora.  Keep in mind the track work can be like a maintenance-deferred short line so no guarantees we’ll be derailment free.  RJ Corman is on standby.

Directions if needed: From South Main St (Hwy 41 S), take SR 70/McLaughlin/Princeton Rd west.  Turn right on Lakewood Dr., just past the Elks Club.  Take the first left (which remains Lakewood Dr.).  Go right as the road elbows, our drive way is the first on the right.  Blue house with a yellow front door, RR crossing sign in the back yard.

Hope to see you here!

Bill

 

Well, we’ve experienced another tragedy in the railroad industry. As I’m sure all have heard, two Amtrak track workers were killed earlier this month due to what looks like human error or some sort of communication glitch. Either way, we should send up a prayer for their families.

It is a strong reminder how quickly a situation can turn deadly when multiple tons of massed energy are speeding down the tracks. Take time to check your surroundings when standing track-side. It occasionally occurs to me to think about my escape route should a passing train derail—granted, the chances are slim– but when so close to such machinery it crosses our minds.

Also take time to do an amateur inspection of track, possible obstructions, etc. in your location. As impersonal as the major railroads may seem these days, they don’t put those 800 numbers on the cross bucks for nothing. Put the numbers in your smart phones. I know we’ve had chapter members report broken rail and stuck air horns in the past.

So let’s be good neighbors and wisely choose our photo spots and watching locations as we continue to enjoy plenty of RR activity in our area and abroad.

Keep the news and pictures coming! Bill

Editorial Comments by Bill Thomas

I’m not sure exactly when I told Chuck Hinrichs I would try my hand at producing and editing our chapter’s fine newsletter, The PennyRail.  I was following a long line of astute volunteer railroad walking encyclopedias like Chuck and our missed-friend Dennis Carnal.  Talk about tough acts to follow – needless to say I felt inadequate for the job.  But with encouragement from both and many chapter members I set out to simply maintain the integrity and level of quality we’d all come to expect.

With my recent shift in career paths from professional minister to realtor, I need to reorganize my civic work load in order to assure financial stability for my family.  So, beginning this January, 2014, our own Ricky Bivins will take the bull by the horns and begin the task of assembling and producing our newsletter.  I hope you will join me in welcoming him to the post and encourage him by contributing publishing material on a regular basis.  No information or stories are too small or insignificant for publication.  Remember, this is a local chapter, not the Chicago Board of Trade.  Personal stories and local photographs are necessary.  Keep those cameras and smart phones handy.  You never know when a once-in-a-lifetime shot will come along.

I want to say “thanks” to the chapter for your support and many contributions to the PennyRail over the last several years as I attempted to bring you a publication of which you are proud.  I’m looking forward to being a contributor in the future!

 

I think it is great that Thomas Bryan was able to go to Rail Camp this year.  I also think it’s great that our Chapter helped with his expenses.  In a day and time when most kids are stuck to a video game of some sort, (my kids included) we still have a few who don’t mind getting their hands dirty.

This is why it is important to be part of something bigger that our local group.  There is no way we could have made an experience like Rail Camp a reality with our limited resources.  But, when we pool our efforts with other chapters, we can accomplish great things.

Due to my son Joe having surgery next Monday, I will not be here Monday night to hear Thomas tell about his experiences at Rail Camp.  I hope you will be unless providentially hindered.  We should be happy that a young person has shown the interest. – Bill Thomas