The Hunt for Moxahala

[ccaranna]

Spring has sprung, and what a perfect time for a railfan adventure.  I?ve wanted to check out some lines in Ohio still unfamiliar to me, and the NS West Virginia Secondary won the contest as the first trip of the year.

For me, there?s always something new to learn about railroads and railroading.  Maybe that?s why I?m so attracted to it.  There are always unknown elements involved, and I guess my fascination with history and cartography combined with the real-life thrill of train watching is what makes it so appealing.

As far as the WV Secondary is concerned, I tried to learn as much about it as possible before I began my quest.  Honestly though, I didn?t have the patience and time to become an expert on the subject before I began my journey, so with a little internet luck, my SPV and DeLorme atlases under one arm, and my scanner set to 161.070 in the palm of my hand, I was ready to go.

Up to this point, I knew the Secondary runs through the scenic southeast part of Ohio, and connects Columbus to Charleston, WV.  Unlike the flat lands of central Ohio of which I?m accustomed, I knew I would be in for a treat as I headed down to the unglaciated step lands of the Appalachian Mountains.  

Some tidbits of information I learned about the line was that it was built sometime in the mid to late 1800?s and wasn?t fully completed until around a hundred years ago.  It has a single track mainline, though there are at least two passing sidings in Ohio along the way.  There are some industries as well, one of which is a chemical producer, as well as a recently built coal mine.  The railroad itself has seen numerous owners and name changes since it?s inception- Toledo and Ohio Central until it was absorbed into the New York Central in 1937; the Penn Central from 1968-1976; and finally Norfolk Southern when it obtained the line from Conrail in 1999.  After some track work and repair, the line is in good shape and is right at home in the hands of the NS.

As with any railroad engineering and building project in the 19th century, the construction in flat regions went more quickly than through the rugged terrain in the hills and valleys.  There are several tunnels which it threads on its course; several down in Megis country near the Ohio River (didn?t get time to find those, which may be part two at a later date) and two further up the line at New Lexington and Moxahala.  The tunnel at Moxahala delayed completion of the line for many years.  Lack of funds slowed work on it, and its length at nearly 1,300 feet may have been another factor in the late finish.  Not only is Moxahala the longest tunnel on the Secondary, but the line actually crests inside the S-shaped tunnel after the 1.1% northbound grade through the Wayne National Forest.  Not the steepest grade in U.S. railroading by any means, but helpers are sometimes required up the ascent with 100 car coal trains.   Once northwest past New Lexington, however, the line levels off and can easily traverse the rolling plains of Fairfield County on its way to its Columbus terminus, Buckeye Yard.

Traffic flow and density has always been the hardest aspect of fanning for me to grasp a firm handle on.  I?m sort of a ?wait and see? type fan, though information from groups and message boards found on-line help guide me somewhat.  In Columbus, I can be certain that I?ll catch some action in certain locations pretty regularly, but luck is still involved more or less, like a fisherman with nothing but a rod and a prayer.  I know where to fish, but I don?t have any scientific help to assist.  So all alone, I climbed in my rowboat and paddled for the hills of southeastern Ohio.

Even if I?m not in train-chasing/exploring/adventuring mode, I always enjoy a nice drive to see the scenery.  This trip was sort of like that.  As I headed away from town, it didn?t take long to notice the land begin to change.  By the time I reached Pickerington, a newly developed suburb southeast of Columbus, I already noticed slight undulations in the ground.  Though still generally flat, it was interesting watching the hills develop.  


Pickerington looking west[/color][/size]

I took state route 256 east outside of Pickerington, and before long I was in the country.  I got somewhat of a late start on the day, and the sun was shining brightly overhead as it tends to do around noontime.  SR 256 follows the line in this first segment outside of town for the most part, so I was happily cruising along at 55-60 simply enjoying the ride.  The first town encountered is Baltimore.  It?s larger than you may think, but still small compared to what I?m used to in the city.  The line runs along the north side of town and runs directly east-west at this point.


Outside of Baltimore looking east[/color][/size]

Next up is the small community of Thurston.  Half to two-thirds the size of Baltimore, you can drive through it in less than 2 minutes.  Here the line turns to the southeast.  Even though Thurston is small, it does have a grain elevator and also sports a passing siding.  Thurston incidentally was where the original Toledo and Ohio Central line split.  Though both lines originally terminated in Toledo, the existing active line continues east back to Columbus and then north on to Toledo (via the CSX), while the other (now abandoned portion) continued north out of Thurston through Bucyrus and Fostoria.


Thurston looking northwest[/size][/color]

After Thurston, I decided to ditch the state route and tried to follow the line as closely as possible using the county and township roads.  Instantly on these lesser traveled roads, I noticed the terrain become hillier.  I was able to keep the track in view, but it was slow going as I had to map check at every stop and turn to make sure that I was heading in the right direction.  

While heading in a general southeasterly direction, I came across US 22 at West Rushville.  I wound up getting turned around and headed west on 22, but I straightened the ship around and was back on course for Bremen, the next large town on the map.  Meanwhile, all this time the radio was silent.  Nothing to even hint a train was coming.

Once I reached Bremen, the terrain was now becoming hilly.  The track and most of the major state routes follow the valleys, but the views of the surrounding countryside are nice due to the gradual slopes.  This area was very scenic, with lots of well maintained hillsides and farms.  Nice landscape photo ops abound.  Still no trains, though.


Bremen looking south[/size][/color]

At Bremen the line takes an abrupt turn to the east.  The NYC shared the stretch between Bremen and New Lexington with a former and now abandoned PRR line.  Both railroads crossed the B&O (also abandoned) at none other than Junction City.  I can only imagine what a different and busy place this area must have been back in the day.  Though Junction City is still a well kept town, there isn?t much evidence that it was once the center of three Class 1 railroads.

Once I reached New Lexington, I was getting kind of hungry.  Lucky for me the town was large enough to have many fast food establishments from which to choose.  New Lexington on the whole is a very nice town, one that I wouldn?t mind living in if I worked in the area.  It?s basically a town in, on, and around a large hill.  Uptown is actually the downtown commercial district that I suppose where the original city was founded, with residential area taking up the hill sides and the newest development is relegated to the bottom where the Secondary passes through.  (Did I mention still no trains?  Keep reading it will change eventually)

After I ate, I thought I would try to locate the first tunnel, the New Lexington, which I heard interestingly enough actually runs beneath the Perry County Airport.  After a false start exiting town, I finally found the correct route I intended and was on my way.  Before I knew it, the county road began to crumble which was more than my little boat could take.  I carefully continued on as I waived past 4x4s and other motorists more brave and confident of the terrain as I poked along at less than 20 mph.  I found a couple good photo opportunities for a later date at a one lane bridge.




Outside of New Lexington[/size][/color]

The heavily pocked gravel road twisted up and around for a while when along came a tall barbed-wire fence visible up above that paralleled the roadway.  This must be the airport, but I couldn?t confirm anything since it was at a higher elevation.  It started to look like finding the short New Lexington tunnel would have to wait until next time.

Next was trying to find the Moxahala tunnel.  Once I was back on paved roads, I made it to the town of Moxahala, which is pretty much a row of homes in a valley backed up along the right of way.  When I arrived I wasn?t sure where the tunnel was at first. After I made many checks of all my maps and made a couple loops around on the county roads, I determined that it would be a hike to reach the portal, so I delayed finding it so I could continue following the line south.  (Still no trains, by the way)

Continuing southward, the line parallels SR 13 through the scenic Wayne National Forest.  At this point the road twists and turns, but does open up on occasion so I was able to reach speeds close to 60 mph.  I managed to see the passing siding at Corning from the road, as well as a new coal facility south of Glouster.  I continued merrily along my way south through small town after small town; Rendville, Jacksonville, and Trimble  to name a few.  I even found the time to stop at Hatfield for a shot of a truss hidden in the trees.  It wasn?t until I reached Chauncey that I got my first sign of train life on the radio.  


Truss hidden at Hatfield[/size][/color]

It seems that a track inspector was looking for permission for some time to work the right of way around Chauncey though the dispatcher advised that he had one at Hobson that was going to head north.  This resulted in a waiting game for me, since he told the inspector that he would alert him as to when he needed to clear but he had at least an hour before then.  In the meantime, I thought I would have enough time to try to head down to Hobson and meet the train, but not before driving around Chauncey and finding this charred structure:


Burned house at Chauncey[/size][/color]

I kicked it up a notch and drove with a little more urgency, though still safely.  Once I reached Athens, the largest town in the region and home to Ohio University, I filled up the car for $32.00, and picked up US 33.  I consistently kept speeds up around 60 mph, though the Secondary was never in sight.  The scenery was nice again, but you really get the feeling that you?re ?on top of the world? and not in the valleys as was the case a few times before.  Once I reached state route 7, I was at the Ohio River which continues down to Kanauga and Gallipolis where the line crosses over into West Virginia at the Kanawha River.  Though I didn?t make it that far, I continued looking for Hobson yard.  There hadn?t been any chatter on the radio since I heard it earlier at Chauncey, so I wasn?t sure if the train was heading north or was still getting ready to depart.  Hobson yard is not easy to find, and it really isn?t what I expected once I found it.  It consisted of a new looking yard office and maybe two or three tracks.  It was tucked away off the main roads with ?No Trespassing? signs, so I made a quick glance and determined that the train must have already departed, though I still wasn?t 100% sure.

By now it was four o?clock and I started back north to see if I could find the Moxahala tunnel and maybe meet the train there.  As I continued on my way, nothing indicated that the train departed.  One thing I noticed about the line is that there are no signals that I could find.  Since I?m not sure how railroad operations work, I thought the silence on the radio was due to the fact that the crew did not have to call out any signal indications if in fact, there were none.  

By the time I got to Moxahala, it was closing in on five o?clock.  I parked the car in a conveniently placed gravel turnout off the road, got out and proceeded to walk to the northern tunnel portal as planned, if it was within reach.  The single track curves slightly in between a couple tree grown hillsides, so at first I was not able to see clearly down to the portal.  Always staying alert, I cautiously walked along the ditch beside the roadbed and tried to stay out of the stream of water flowing along side it.  After about five to ten minutes of walking, the mysterious portal became visible.  The track enters the portal along a curve, so it would be a bit tricky (for me at least) to get a shot on a train exiting.  There wasn?t enough standing room on the inside of the curve for me to get a shot, so I had to settle for the outside.  Luckily there was an old 3-foot cement abutment on this side, so I was able to get a slightly higher angle.  I would have preferred getting higher, but this was not possible since the sides of the hills bordering the track were pretty steep.  

I waited patiently yet hopefully that the expected northbound would make its appearance.  Though I was confident that I hadn?t missed the train, I had a slight gut feeling that I was waiting for nothing and the train was already in Columbus, some 50 miles away.  

In the meantime, I experimented with some shots and angles, all of which I wasn?t sold on.  The light was shining through the inside curve which was the opposite side that I was able to access.  The sunlight wasn?t a big deal anyway, since the area near the portal was shaded anyway.  I thought I would settle on a shot of the train just exiting the tunnel and go for that.  

While I waited, a couple trucks passing through the road where I parked almost made me think that it was the train coming, but I was wrong.  Other than the occasional muffler-less vehicle on the roadway, it was a pretty serene and relaxing place to wait.  Before much longer though, I heard the familiar rumbling of several thousand horses coming from the opening.  I was getting excited now!  Since I had not seen the train at all, I had no idea what was going to come through.  I stood up and got myself ready to fire off some shots.  Though I still wasn?t happy with my vantage point, I was going to capture this scene whether I liked it or not.  I poised myself and looked through the viewfinder.  Still no train, but I could hear ?em coming!  I lowered the camera slightly to see if I could see the headlight on the tunnel wall.  Not yet.  I moved the camera up to look again, still nothing.  Man, this apparently wasn?t the 50 mph hot-shot expresses I was accustomed to on the flat lands of north-central Ohio!

The hell with it, I?m just going to leave the camera focused and be ready.  Shortly, I saw the headlight shine through the black abyss.  Right after, through a haze of blackish-grey exhaust, out pokes a blue wide-nosed ex-Conrail GE.  How appropriate!  I fired a few shots.  I felt compelled to drop the camera and just take in the sites with BOTH my eyes, but I guess I wanted something to remember the trip by.  As soon as I took the shot, the elder GE slowly made itself upon me and so did the smiling face and friendly gesture of the conductor.  Following behind were two catfish nose to nose.  After that, a long procession of NS Top-Gons with some ex-Conrail G52?s sprinkled in for interest creaked, strained, and lumbered past me.  It didn?t take long however, for the train to pick up speed drastically after it crested the hill.  Before I knew it I was counting the cars faster and faster, to the point that I was kind of losing track of where I was.  On top of this, I heard on the radio that there were in fact helpers on this train, so that kind of distracted me as well.    


Northbound Exiting Moxahala[/size][/color]

It seems however, there was a problem with the helper.  Before the tail had exited the tunnel, the helper crew (86R with one person, I believe) was calling up to the head end 88K crew that he was having computer problems.  By the time this information had been known to me, the tail end had exited and a solitary ES40DC (still in primer) brought up the rear with the cab end trailing.  I packed up my gear and hustled back to the car attentively listening to the radio.

About fifteen minutes later I made it back to the car, got in it, and headed north to try to keep up with the train.  It was starting to sound that the helper situation on the rear end was more terminal than both crews originally anticipated.  Before long, the helper said that he was losing power and didn?t think he would make it back home.  It was decided that once they reached New Lexington, they would stop and try to troubleshoot the problem.  As I drove to keep up it was difficult deciphering what was going on between the crews and dispatch.  To make matters worse, I was heading into the early evening sun, so most of my concentration was on the curves in the road.

Once I reached New Lexington, I spotted the helper end of the train parked.  As I moseyed through town, it sounded as if they were going to take the broken unit all the way to Buckeye and call a cab for the crewmember on 86R.  At this point, I took this as an opportunity to get ahead of the train and beat it to Bremen, the next large town and maybe get another shot.  No sooner that I was through town, the train continued as well.  Once I got to Bremen, I tried to locate a photo location as quickly as I could.  Not being familiar with the town made this a bit of a challenge.  There was a curve that headed into the sun by a BP station, so I guess this was as good a spot as any.  I parked, set-up, and in no-time, the train was coming around the bend.  


Rounding through Bremen[/size][/color]

After it had passed, I thought I would try to catch it again.  The sun was getting kind of low and the day was long, so I was going to have to make quick work of the time that was left.  I didn?t have an idea where I was going to meet the train next, but the decision was made that they would use the passing siding at Thurston to pick up the broken helper and bring it up to the front.  Once I got there, it wasn?t long for the train to arrive behind me again.  The sun was setting, so I tried to fire off a couple last ? wedges, since that was all I could muster.  After a while of train order canceling and issuing, the head end units tied down the train and pulled up through town to the north end of the siding.  By now it was just about dark, and I really couldn?t pull off any decent shots that I feel are worthy of sharing.  After the lead units were on the siding, they headed back to the rear.  




Last Hoorahs at Thurston[/size][/color]

Unfortunately, this is where the story ends.  The unit retrieval process took a long time, and by now it was dark, and I didn?t need to hang around.  The only thing I wished I had a chance to see was the locomotives once they were finished.  It wasn?t clear to me if they simply coupled on to the broken ES40DC, and continued on to Columbus with the broken unit?s long end forward, or did they somehow shuffle it to the trailing end of the lashup.  This was unknown to me.  But hey, that?s OK, more questions about the West Virginia Secondary were answered on this day than I could ever ask, and the great memories of the trip leave me itching to go back for more.

[Norm]

I enjoyed the report.  Sounds like you were able to scout out several good areas.

[E.M. Bell]

Great report Chuck..thats a piece of the NS that is not covered all that well. As I have said many times..Quality over quanity any day!!