A month of busy TTI action, Old GE's, Rock and Coal trains in KY

[E.M. Bell]

I have spent about every free day for the last month and a half out shooting the TTI (Trans-Kentucky Transportation) between Paris and Maysville.  As I reported a few weeks ago, the line has seen a recent surge of activity after being VERY slow for the past 2 or 3 years.  A new coal contract, plus a series of test trains of scrubber stone have had them running 3 or 4 days a week since August, and the past month has been particularly busy. The almost regular trains plus some great weather have kept a lot of us around here on the road between Paris and Maysville,KY a lot. Early mornings and a lot of driving have been the norm, and very much worth it.  While I used to shoot the TTI a lot back 15 years ago or so, I had not done much with them since then, and its been great to be able to shoot some of the old spots and enjoy some of the new. 

While its not entirely clear yet, it seems that they will be back to low traffic levels over the winter, and things will start slowing back down next week.  When your business revolves around coal and power plants, it can be a toss of the dice as to what you might have to haul from month to month.  Its been fun while it lasted, and hopefully it wont be to long to they are back running every day.

I finally finished up processing on well over 60 new images going back to the middle of September, and have them all uploaded to my gallery.    Here are a few teasers, but be sure to check out the entire set at this link >>>>   http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/tti15

On a perfect sunny morning, the TTI crews pumps air on 60 cars of limestone in the yard at Paris. 


  On the CSX (C&O) main along the Ohio River in Maysville, KY 


The brown corn of Fall and Blue & White GE's near Clark, Ky


Passing the Maysville Catholic Cemetery on the C&O main , Maysville, KY


Southbound empties head down the valley at Clark, Ky under a big sky.


TTI 5815 leads a Southbound across the placid waters of Stoner Creek in Paris, Ky

[steveiez]

Coal is and up and down business but power plants are required too keep a certain amount of coal on had.
If we get this so called vortex winter...it will get busy.