My Little Jaunt Over To Kentucky..............

Yesterday, my father and I made a "little" hour and a half jaunt from our home here in West Virginia over to Russell, Kentucky. The reason why we had decided to go down there was that both he and I had been wanting to get some shots in and around the large CSX rail yard that is located in town. After getting our car back on the road after its timing chain had broke and bent a valve. We decided that today, Sunday, would be the perfect day to head down there. So after we had to stop and get a new tire put on the left rear of our car. We made it to the east end of Russell Yard where "RU Cabin" stands as it still guards the westbound yard entrance coming into the main yard. Even though we were there for about I'd say an hour at best. We didn't leave Russell, Kentucky disappointed in the least bit.

Yard crew "Y220" shoves a cut of freight cars back west into the main classification yard. This crew may have been assembling the eastbound manifest that runs through my neck of the woods some time Monday morning.


Yard crew "Y250" pulls a long cut of freight cars east, just shy of "RU Cabin" as they too are assembling a train for a westbound run to either Cincinnati or Columbus, Ohio.


As the Y250 gets ready to shove its cut of cars back west. Engine #570 and its mate head east onto the yard lead and onto number one track of the Kanawha Subdivision to pick up a coal train setting just east of the yard.


Now since Russell, Kentucky is and always will be a town built by the railroads. The city of Russell, Kentucky is currently in the process of restoring "RU Cabin" while turning it and the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway depot next door into a museum. RU, Russell, Cabin is one of only a few interlocking towers left standing along the former Chesapeake & Ohio mainlines. I can honestly say that the museum will look splendid when it is finished. I mean, after all they do have a fully restored former C&O caboose setting on the property behind the tower. Also of note, Russell Rail Yard was at one time the world record holder for the largest rail yard at four miles long and upto a mile wide at its widest point.


While on the way back, we decided to stop at my uncle's house to see what he was up to. So after we had chatted with my uncle and my aunt. My father realized that someone just down the road from my uncle's had a completely intact former Norfolk & Western Railway caboose setting next to a work shop alongside the creek that runs behind it. How long this caboose has been setting in this location, I have no idea as to how long it has been there. I can say that who ever bought the thing from the Norfolk & Western and had to have it trucked in since there are not any railroad tracks in Proctorville, Ohio where this caboose is at.



After leaving my uncle's house on the Ohio side of the river. We decided to head over to the headquarters for CSX's Huntington Division to see what was going on. When we pulled onto the parking lot, I noticed a string of locomotives setting in front of the old C&O passenger depot. Apparently, some of if not all of the locomotives were being parted out for use on other locomotives. Parted out meaning using the good parts on an already dead unit and using them on another unit so as to keep the latter unit in service. When I walked up on to the former passenger platform, I saw a string of about thirty to fourty locomotives parked on one yard track with about twenty more setting on the track next to them. Some of these locomotives weren't looking in too good of shape that were setting towards the west end of the old depot. I don't like saying this but I have to in this case. The future is not looking that bright for some of these locomotives.

CSXT 8852 facing east with the center axle removed on both sets of axles.


CSXT 8810 looks even worse with both center axles and the turbo charger removed.







The rest of line..............


Looking east out of the yard towards the Huntington Locomotive Shops.

Conrail! Yeah! Had those cars in my old hood all the time when I was a kid.

Hey.gimme, nice pics. I lived in Russell for a little while.

great thread Gimme!!!

We are supposed to be going to North Platte, NE this July.. I'll grab ya some rail yard pics if you like Theyre supposed to have a new museum there since last time we were there.. Im positive my father in law will NEED to take us to it! He worked for the rail and started when they were still using morse code to communicate with the trains!

That Union Pacific yard at North Platte is just down right mesmerizing when it comes to its shear size. Its four miles long and two miles wide and it sets on Union Pacific's "Transcon" main line between Chicago and West Coast. Every single thing that comes out of that yard heading east is either going to Chicago or St. Louis. Every thing that heads west to either San Francisco or Seattle comes out of there. Oh, you know hes gonna take you to the museum before you get there.

And to think it knocked Russell, Kentucky off of the record by a freaking mile.