' Twas the Day after Christmas on the A Line

[billworsham]

My buddy Steve and I decided to see what was in the day for the A line between Bristol and Knoxville.

I started out going from Newport to Morristown to Bulls Gap.  I heard 236 (Intermodal, Chicago, IL to Norfolk VA) in communication with East End Dispatch around 10:25am.  A few minutes later, 236 rolled through Bulls Gap with NS 2722 at the head end with two trailing motors.  At 10:50am I saw 23G (Louisville KY to Norfolk VA) at Kite, rolling by with NS 2763 on the head with three motors trailing.  Following the trailing units, about 10 covered hopper cars, then about 10 loaded autoracks, then the rest was double and single stacks.  The stacks made up more than half of the train.

At 11:15 T59 (Bulls Gap TN to Knoxville TN) left Bulls Gap with 7 motors at the head, NS 9186 leading.  The Whitesburg defect detector (MP79.0) reported T59 with no defects shortly thereafter.  Russellville at 11:33, Motorcycle Shop at 11:40, Defect Detector MP 87.1 11:45,  cleared Pickens at 11:47,  met 38Q (Knoxville TN to Harrisburg PA) eastbound at the Chicken House, New Line track 2 at 11:51, Approach Diverging Coulter at 11:53.  At this time, Steve meets the train at Coulter and takes a few snapshots.  Rollby inspection from 38Q  no problems at 11:53 and diverging clear Alpha at 11:55.  

38Q began rolling at 11:53am.  Called Pickens at 11:54, Motorcycle Shop at 12:02pm.  Defect detector at MP87.1 reported no defects.

Met Steve at the Burger King there at Pickens then we headed toward Jefferson City/New Market. NS Train 134 (Chattanooga TN - Linwood, NC) showed up shortly thereafter.   16T (NS 9891, Birmingham AL to Allentown PA) with three NS black trailing motors and a green/white engine leading the manifest would show up almost immediately.  We met them at the Friends double crossover where they were stopped.  We snapped some shots there, then took off back toward Jeff City to get ahead of 16T.  By the time we got out of McDonald's for a short break, 16T called New Market, so we met it again at Jefferson City.

After that, Steve and I decided we would go and research the area near Hodges/Charter Oaks road and the New Market signal where the overhead walkway is.  We wanted to see if it was accessible, which it wasn't.  At this point, Steve and I decided to call it a day and part ways.

On our ways back home, 16T was held up at Jones, 38Q at Telford, while track authority was being issued for 22A (being led by NS 9722) westbound from Telford to Jones AND Rader to MP76 (Bulls Gap) at 4:01pm.  At that time, 22A reported it's location at MP39A.  In the meantime, 707 (coal empties) departed Knoxville Sevier Yard after replacing three dead batteries on the three head engines.  707 at first had an approach signal at New Line, but was given permission by East End dispatch to go on through Pickens, as 22A had not arrived at Sand Valley yet.  707 arrived at Bulls Gap at 3:58, recrewed, and departed Bulls Gap for Appalachia at 4:13pm.  At the same time,  track authority from Jones to Telford was being issued to 16T not to depart til arrival of 22A.

Well, by the time all was said and done, there was one train that we did not see.  15T.  Don't know where it was.  We usually see it in the afternoon to early evening mix.  Guess it was late or still tied down at Bristol awaiting a crew.  We did not even hear anything on the radio for 15T either.

This was a perfect day for train chasing;  mild to cool temperatures and plenty of sunshine.