Pokey maintenance Windows - questions

[troy12n]

I will be heading to Northern VA/Southern WV in the 3rd and 4th week in October and plan on doing some railfanning, please let me know what is the current deal on Maintenance Windows on the Pokey and other districts in the area. Last time I Was up there in January they were not running anything until like noon, then a big burst from noon-5 and then shut down again. What is the general flow of traffic during this time (IE: when do they let them loose from Roanoke and Williamson? And is anything running over the ex-VGN to get around the mess?

[CSXBVSub]

The only window is on the Kenova, 2 AM-2 PM on apparently only weekdays. The westbounds just kind of leave Roanoke when ready and not really at one time anymore. The eastbounds usually get to Williamson about 3 PM. And I haven't heard of anything on the VGN to get around it.

[thpbears]

If you can make it by the Bluefield yard I think you will like it with all the coal drags. There is also a Pochahotas train show in November here in Bluefield if you google it you can see the dates. Any ways hope you see alot of trains.

[CSXBVSub]

So they are done Bluefield to Williamson and are now just working west of Williamson?

Yes.

[CSXBVSub]

Ok, thats cool, so at least during the day you will get the coal drags in the morning anyway

And quite often lately, there have been westbound time freights (29G & 51R the other day) having to hold in Williamson for hours waiting on tunnel work to clear up west of town.

[CSXBVSub]

U.S. 52 follows the RR almost all the way from Williamson to Kenova.