Pocahontas Division reroutes begin next week.

[ns_7011]

From Colin McLaughlin.

"The inter-divisional runs (I.D. runs)from Portsmouth to Bluefield
and reverse are to be abolished Monday the 8th of October.
The company has placed the message on the bid information screen
that allI.D. jobs are to be abolished effective 9am Monday morning.
This is due to the rerouting of the following trains.
18m east
17m west
194 east
I still don't have the information on these trains.
274 east
185 west
The east bound 578 coal train from Buckeye yard is also expected to
be rerouted.
I can say that the officials are uncertain to when the grain trains
east are to be cutoff.But it has been said at work that when the
tunnel projects start they most certainly will be.
These trains I'm told will not be cut.
234 east
233 west
148 east
147 west
The reroutes will go via Ashville,N.C. and Harrodsburg, Pa. .
There is a relocation plan being offered to (5) Portsmouth conds.
and (5) Williamson conds. .It is a 24 month plan that at the end will
benefit the transferred employee $3500.00 upon completion.
At this time the tunnels west of Bluefield DO NOT have contractors
to do the work.
Officials said in a saftey class last week that if the tunnels are
to be finished on time and under budget that the railroad would
double track between tunnels #4 and #7 .But it relies on the
mentioned time and money.
The NS expects to reroute some coal and empty hopper trains on the
Poca Division.
The tunnel crews are expected to work during the night with a (10)
hour window.(1) hour to get setup,( to work,(1) to get in the clear.
I had a more detailed list and lost it,but if I find it I'll try
and put the info. on here.
But as it stands the rerotes and job losses are coming to the Pokey
with tunnel work or not.
The cuts are going to be felt on the Lake Division also with a
couple of I.D. jobs being cutoff next week too.
This all was expected to happen but nothing was really final until
now.Hope you guys get those pictures before the trains find other
rails for awhile.
I've worked this side for almost 17 years now,and have held onto a
regular short pool job from Portsmouth to Willamson for 3 years solid
now.But now I fill like I'm falling to the bottom of the senority
list again,bummer.
But if this old world is still turnig in 3-4 years the Pokey will
once
again claim the name "The Proud Pocahontas Division" !"

[Chase55671]

Thanks for the info! I heard they were starting in August and then I heard about next year. I'm glad they finally have this work underway.

Chase

[JCagle]

Any idea how the reroutes will run via Asheville? I don't have a good grasp on how everything connects up that way to everything down here in NC. I am assuming it would be via Roanoke. Can anyone clarify for me?

[Chase55671]

The Norfolk Southern West Virginia Secondary just saw our first reroute from the pokey mess. It was a southbound coal train. Below are the details, I did not get photos due to it being too late.

8:19 PM
NS 9253
Southbound Empty Coal Train
SOM Cars with SR lettering on the railcars, they were black with yellow lettering.

Stay Tuned!
Chase

[ns_7011]

Chase, I think I've seen those cars before on the Secondary. It must have a habit of having OLS units, last time I saw it it had a GP59 OLS, 4633 I believe. Nice catch on the 9253 though!

[Chase55671]

Thanks, I have some additional information from another topic here. He said that it is probably a return of an older train. He remembers seeing them when he worked on the Secondary. The symbol was 525 so that is why I thought it was a reroute. Hopefully it returns with the same cars and power and I will try to get a daylight shot of this train.

Thanks,
Chase

[JCagle]

From a contact on the VA division:

They cut 4 trains yesterday on the Bluefield to Roanoke route. Tunnels scheduled to start Oct.22 in full construction. Not sure where they are going to reroute trains? I have heard different speculations but no one knows for sure. The trains I know of that were cut 147,194,185 and 17M. I saw on the line up they were running make up jobs though I85 and I17 which is 185 and 17M make up symbols. It is going to be a interesting mess for a while.

[ns_7011]

I heard from NS employees that the following WILL NOT BE REROUTED. 147, 148 (which are pretty much pokey locals) 217, 218, 233 and 234, your hotshot intermodals. I guess they're too high priority to be rerouted, im not sure though. I17 is 217's second symbol btw.

[NS212]

Learned more from an NS employee on the VA Div between Roanoke-Bluefield. The only trains that have been cut so far are 185, and 17M/18M. Of course 17M/18M have been running the central div. 188/189 have been added to the pokey as make-up freight for 185 and just extra freight. They will run 3 times per week. 274 is still running on the pokey as well as 194. I heard grain traffic is to be rerouted sometime next week, but then again who knows when everything will start to be rerouted. I think 194 and 274 may be rerouted up the Shenandoah Valley on the NS Hagerstown District when things get into full swing. They ran this route for several weeks in the summer after a derailment somewhere, I think it was Ohio. Anybody else know anything?

[Michael Knight]

NS is going to run 18M as a combo train with 166 east of Knoxville when tonnage permits.

[JCagle]

To the best of my knowledge even when 17m and 18m are combined with other trains they will still carry the 17m and 18m symbol all the way.

[Michael Knight]

To the best of my knowledge even when 17m and 18m are combined with other trains they will still carry the 17m and 18m symbol all the way.

Thanks for the reply Jason. I'm not sure how many of these have run as combo train so far. They may also switch the numbers of the combo, depending on what block the majority of the train is built from in Knoxville. Both 17M & 18M are having the many of their cars humped at Knoxville in addition to block-swapping moves.

[JCagle]

I'm planning to be up in the Salisbury/Spencer area in the evenings this weekend and I will try to get a heads up on what power is on 18m if I am able to. The 18m for one night here will be on the next day's traffic on up the line (Knoxville and points North).

[Michael Knight]

Today's (arriving in Knoxville) was run as a combo with 165.