Obituary for Jon T. Futrell

June 21, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments News

Mr. Jon T. Futrell, age 50, of Mayfield, KY passed away at 2:31 PM Wednesday, June 2, 2021 at Mercy Health – Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, KY. Jon was a graduate of Mayfield High School and Murray State University and Jon was a staff writer for the Paducah Sun for nearly 25 years. His passion for local sports and love of movies will be remembered by all who knew him.

Jon is survived by his father & step-mother – Jim & Myra Futrell of Mayfield, KY; his brother – Andrew (Monica) Futrell and nieces – Maggie, Grace & Nora of Mokena, IL; step-sister – Heather Hilton, niece – Lynsey & nephew – Taylor all of Dyersburg, TN; aunt – Evelyne Futrell; cousins – Amy (Jerry) Norman, Matt (Stephanie) Futrell and Shelley Futrell.

He was preceded in death by his mother – Carol Price Futrell; grand-parents – James & Doris Futrell, Jim & Peggy Price and an uncle – Bill Futrell.

Visitation for Jon [was] held at the Brown Funeral Home in Mayfield, KY on Friday, June 4, 2021 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Private family services will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy can be made in the form of a donation to your favorite local high school organization or charity.

RPOs No More

May 17, 2021 Fred Ripley No Comments Fred Ripley

The year is 1968, the place: Bethel, Minnesota on the Great Northern line from the Twin
Cities north to the port cities of Duluth and Superior. Mail messenger Phil Fox is hanging a catcher
pouch of outbound mail on the crane.


Soon the southbound Badger, Train #23 from Duluth will fly by at 70 MPH and snag the pouch with a hook mounted in the Railway Post Office open car door. The clerk manning the hook will simultaneously toss a sack on inbound mail. The arms on the mail crane will collapse as a safety measure for other train crewman like the conductor standing in the vestibule.


This scene was repeated daily, hundreds of times on 1500 RPO routes across the country. The Railway Mail Service once employed 30,000 men in 4,000 RPO cars. These men sorted mail enroute, a service that many times included dispatching letters in pouches at stations that were snagged on the fly earlier in the same run.


It all came to an end on June 30, 1977 when the “New York & Washington,” in both directions, made their last runs. As
a sole survivor, this RPO run saw all the others “twilight” with the inception of AMTRAK in 1971. RPOs were victims of airlifting first class mail and the use of trucks.


A little editorial comment: When the RPOs were active, you could mail a letter in Seattle and have it delivered to a home in the Twin Cities on the 3rd day. Even with 500MPH jets today,?? forget it.


Photos by Don L.Hofsommer as seen in Classic Trains magazine, Fall 2006


Professor Hofsommer is a noted railfan/author, Submitted by Gary Ostlund

Ahh! Spring is almost here!

April 24, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas

There are a few (train) places I often think about as spring approaches each year as I’ve seen pictures in magazines and websites. First is the southeaster part of Kentucky and western Virginia, on L&N’s Cumberland Valley Sub. There’s a spot between Big Stone Gap and Appalachia, VA, where the former Southern crossed over the L&N. Before this small portion of the L&N was relocated to share rails with the Southern, it dashed into a tunnel known as Callahan’s Nose Tunnel (pictured at left) and continued a parallel route to the SR into Appalachia. The roadbed, tunnel and bridge across Hwy 23 and the Powell River are now an active Rails to Trails path.

Hagen’s Switchback is another location on my bucket list for a visit some spring. What a marvel, the only operating Class 1 mainline switchback in use and it was never meant to be a permanent solution. Relatively new, the long tunnel from the Kentucky side following the Martins’s Fork of the Cumberland River, pierces through over a mile before exiting on the south side of the mountain where the trains reverse westward up the wye to the old CV line (now gone), then pulls ahead eastward. South tail tracks are too short to hold a regular train so they have 3 holding tracks if needed.

My hope is to visit these locations when the redbuds are in bloom. I hear they cover the sides of the hills. I hope you can get out and visit either your favorite rail fanning spots or find a couple of new ones. Either way, be safe, stay off the tracks, and enjoy the re-awakening of nature as we move into a new spring season!

Enjoy! – Bill Thomas, Editor

March 2021 Chapter Photo Contest Winners & Entries

April 24, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments Chapter Photo Contest, Photo Contest Winners, Photo Section
First Place – West Ky NRHS March 2021 Photo Contest by Matt Gentry – Having heard of a southbound with UP power on the point on this bright and sunny spring day I wanted to get a unique shot. Remembering that almost all UP power has the American flag on the long hood and realizing that I was close to Crofton, I remembered an idea I had back in January. But this time there is a theme – Flags! Not long after setting up the shot, the train became audible and, to my surprise, traffic on US41 cooperated and left a huge window for this unobstructed shot.
Second Place – West Ky NRHS March 2021 Photo Contest by Cooper Smith – A Dash 8 rebuild CSX 7779 leads a K train north from Nashville, TN after meeting a southbound autorack train.
CSX rail train preparing to drop new continuous rail north of Crofton, KY. – Photo by William Farrell, 3/30/2021.
Rolling along at track speed, the always reliable CSX Q025 and his 12,700 foot train are about to cross Peddler McDonald Road just North of Sebree, KY on a wonderful spring Saturday on March 27, 2021. Photo by Bill Grady
March 28, 10:35 AM a South bound CSX Q-029 passes through Mortons Gap KY on the Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by Rick Bivins
On March 30th, 2021 CSXT 434 pulls CSX W029 pulls a military train as it passes over the grade crossing at the north end of Kelly, KY as it heads south on the CSX Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by William Farrell
Having finished getting his train out of the Ohio River Valley, Norfolk Southern #224 is westbound and about to go under the new overpass for Lanesville Road just west of Georgetown, Indiana on March 24, 2021. – Photo by Bill Grady
On March 28th, 2021, Some foreign visitors head up a northbound covered hopper train headed out of Evansville, IN. Seen here going under the bridge that is Baseline Rd. on Evansville’s north side, the train has taken the siding to hold for a southbound manifest that will pass by shortly. – Photo by Matt Gentry
The rising sun peeks through a loaded CSX coal train as it heads south bound on the Henderson Subdivision on March 30, 2021 at Mortons Gap, Kentucky. – Photo by Rick Bivins
PAL 4516 heads up the northbound LG train as it passes Rob Roy Rd near Beaver Dam, KY. – Photo by Cooper Smith

WFRX GP15 March 9, 2021

April 24, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments Photo Section, Steve Gentry
Photography by Steve Gentry

Steve Gentry spotted this WFRX GP15 March 9, 2021, it was sitting on the site of the old L&N station in Evansville. The old L&N station was located on Fulton Ave close to Ohio Street. It has a fresh coat of paint. The track it was sitting on services a couple of downtown Evansville locations. Apparently 560 is being assigned switching duties at Berry Plastics in Evansville.

The Oriental Limited is slowly easing by No. 5012

March 16, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

The Oriental Limited is slowly easing by No. 5012, having just exited the original Great Northern Cascade Tunnel in Washington State. Cameras were poised to record the last westbound train over the old snowshed route. But, instead of a happy group of tourists on the back platform of the observation car there was a solitary passenger bundled up against the chill.

This unhappy circumstance was remedied by replacing the lone passenger (by photo retouching) with Wenatchee’s Apple Festival Queen and her Ladies in Waiting before release to the press. The next westbound Oriental Limited will pass through the newly completed 7.79 miles tunnel, several hundred feet below. That tunnel opened on January 12, 1929.

The Oriental Limited was the Great Northern’s premium passenger train prior to introducing the streamlined Empire Builder in 1947. And you thought photo-shopping and spin-control was something new…!

Submitted by Gary Ostlund. – Pix’s by Lee Pickett, Index, WA ., as seen in Charles & Dorothy Woods book: Great Northern Railway a Pictorial Study

My favorite toy!

March 16, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Corum

My favorite toy! Year 2000, 100th Anniversary Lionel train set. Santa Fe, 11 cars: four engines and 7 passenger cars. O-Gauge, 0-31 minimum radius, set length 165” (13’, 9”). Longest train set Lionel had ever made at the time. – Bill Corum

Photos by Ricky Bivins

March 16, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments Photo Section, Rick Bivins

Ricky Bivins shot all but one of these from his home in Mortons Gap, KY

RJ Corman, EMD GP-38’s, Guthrie KY, November 7, 2020
North bound CSX at Mortons Gap, KY, December 5, 2020
Sunrise, December 6, 2020 Mortons Gap KY, South bound loaded coal train, CSX DPU (dispersed power unit).
North bound EMD GP-15 in tow as seen in Mortons Gap KY, December 30, 2020.

Mr. Roy Duncan, age 99, of Paducah passed away on February 2, 2021

March 16, 2021 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

An employee of the L&N Railroad in Paducah, Roy was instrumental in fighting the abandonment of the L&N trackage between Paducah and Murray. In 1981, he incorporated the Western Kentucky Railroad Company in an attempt to purchase  the  line.  Although  negotiations were unsuccessful, his efforts delayed abandonment and gave time for Jack Dunigan to create the J&J Railroad from Hardin to Murray. – Submitted by Chris Dees