The Shed 26

Went out this past Sunday after getting word that CSX 1776, "Honoring Our Veterans" locomotive, was leading a loaded coal train east. Also managed to meet up with a couple of friends of mine to chase this train. We had originally intended to chase this train up to Mount Carbon, West Virginia. However, something else a lot more dramatic would eventually catch our eye along the way east.

Our first shot has 1776 passing through my hometown of Marmet, West Virginia. The snow on the ground was the leftovers from a storm Friday into Saturday that dumped nearly a foot of snow here for the second time this year.


The last shot we would get of this train is from a place here that has a rich history of railroading here in Kanawha County. CSX 1776 leads eastbound coal train T20711 east through the tiny hamlet of Handley with about ten miles to go before a crew change at Mount Carbon as it passes by the former railroad yard office. Handley was at one time the division point between the Hinton and Russell Divisions of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. There was also a large coal marshalling yard here for trains heading east to pick up loads out of Paint Creek and for westbound trains to set off eastbound loads and pick up loads heading west towards the steel mills of the Midwest.



As we were making our way up to Mount Carbon or so we thought. My friend Corey noticed a large column of smoke at the end of town. As we got closer, we could see the line of fire trucks circling around the block close to the Montgomery Bridge. Once there, we realized that the former Montgomery High School was on fire and that it was going to be one hell of a fight to extinguish. This has got to be one of the biggest structure fires that I had seen personally in the past fifteen years. This building over the years had been a high school, an elementary school, city hall, a library, and the diesel mechanic training school for Bridgeview Community College. This build had been vacant for the past few years as Bridgeview moved their diesel mechanic school over to the former location of Brown Chevrolet.

This is what it looked like just as we got there. If you look closely, you can see the flames coming out what is left of one of the bottom windows. In the foreground are trucks from Belle, Oak Hill, Boomer, Armstrong Creek Fire Departments all working this fire. Oak Hill and Belle had their ladder trucks up on the south side of the fire.


Truck 101 from Montgomery Fire setting between the fire building and a duplex next door. I must say I love the blue lighting lining the ladder up to the truck's tower.


Engine 63 from Smithers running water supply to a monitor nozzle, out of picture along with Fayetteville's ladder truck,
and Montgomery's tower ladder to my right.


Crew from Smithers Fire watching the old school burn as another crew from Montgomery mans a monitor nozzle. Fayetteville Fire's ladder truck is seen in the background putting water on the blaze from above.


There were twelve fire departments, eight from Fayette County and four from Kanawha County, fighting this fire. As of this posting, the fire is still under investigation by the West Virginia State Fire Marshall's Office.

a reply to: gimmefootball400

Changes from train spotting to fire reporter without much changing the verbal patter.

Awesome read!

You should start a news station for train spotters. AAaaannd our news reporter is on the spot Gimmenews, over to you!

Now for sports news, right there on the spot is gimmefootball. Go Gimme!

Hi everyone. Always here reading.

P

And we're back...

Bizarre times we live in!

a reply to: XtheMadnessNow

Yay!

Three days in the wilderness, then .... amessage on discord!!

Someone forgot to pay the bill , apparently.

Hope life is back to normal now ... 😄

a reply to: Timely

Yo, welcome back! According to the Admin it was some issue with the account "card" to pay the bill.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I hope that's all it was and no more high octane anxiety events. I just learned of the Discord server. Amazing the resurrection occurred on a Monday.

Hello my Loves!
Sorry the Shed was temporarily lost. I'm rusty on my spells and something went terribly wrong. I had to hang my head in shame and find the secret library to undo what I did.

Anyway, we're all back to normal...I hope.
Drinks are on the pixies tonight. Enjoy!

ETM, I chuckled when I watched the Iditarod. I didn't know the dogs wore boots and jackets now. Cute!

Chooch, been a while. I'll catch up with your post in a minute.

a reply to: XtheMadnessNow

Maybe someone stole their card like we steal Gordi's all the time.

a reply to: Night Star

I have spent three days fixing this mess!

Night, we love you dearly but please, for all that is magical, do not play with time!

Only the Time Lords can do that and they are all but dead now.

Or ... did Night just discover that time is actually non-linear?

Well, it was only three days for you but the Shed aged four weeks and so did the Pixies.

Wolf Lord.

originally posted by: Night Star
Hello my Loves!
Sorry the Shed was temporarily lost. I'm rusty on my spells and something went terribly wrong. I had to hang my head in shame and find the secret library to undo what I did.

Anyway, we're all back to normal...I hope.
Drinks are on the pixies tonight. Enjoy!

Hi mate. Nice to hear from you. Um,,what are the pixie's drinking? Rum perchance? Hmm?

Kind regards,

Bally

The rumors of ATS' demise have been greatly exaggerated.....

originally posted by: gimmefootball400
The rumors of ATS' demise have been greatly exaggerated.....

P

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: XtheMadnessNow

Maybe someone stole their card like we steal Gordi's all the time.

Oi!

So, apparently, it was just a burned out light bulb?

Who forgot to get more candles?

It was getting quite hectic/busy over at RN3 for a while there. We sold out of cookies!

Thought id pop in and say hello, just in case the site does go down again as it did catch me off guard.

Also, you wont find me anywhere else on forum boards with this username (was told theres copycats going around using names). It's just something im sticking with just in case anyone ever wonders

Do have to say, I did think of quite a lot of you (I might be quiet but I lurk) and made peace with it when a bit of anxiety hit me (more than I expected), pictured that you all got what you wanted in life as I was standing in the garden for the first time of this year on a warm sunny day with that fresh cut grass smell. It ended well for each of you. One of you even got the "THE!" that was revealed later to be the people behind the "They" that everyone talks about and saved us all. What a thought!
It was nice until someone asked why I was smiling staring at the sky to which I replied "Umm, ehhh, nothing... it was just... never mind you won't get it"

I do actually hope youse all do get what you want in life if you still have a lot of it left and if you are on the latter stages of the candle... then I hope you at least got some cracking times to enjoy reflecting on at the very least.

I will miss it on here if does go, with my ears being so bad now, I enjoy the slow pace of boards as theres no stress of immediate responses (whilst im trying to figure out wtf people are saying to me) but hey ho.
Im glad for these facemasks as much as I detest them, it was the last thing to fully wake me up, being completely ignored properly to the point that I had no choice but to go deeper inward. Once you find it, you can see it outward in all it's horrifying agony, sophistication and majestic brutal dark beauty what is really going on. But that gives me hope because then you can see the specs of light out there and if not become one.

Anyways that got a bit deep but hey, if you cant speak what's inside whats the point anymore?

a reply to: XXXN3O

"Someone better shut him up. We got lotta money invested in this ride."


Welcome to the Multi-polar World Order.🙃🤔😎

a reply to: XtheMadnessNow

"Someone better shut him up. We got lotta money invested in this ride."

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: Night Star

I have spent three days fixing this mess!

Night, we love you dearly but please, for all that is magical, do not play with time!

Only the Time Lords can do that and they are all but dead now.

Or ... did Night just discover that time is actually non-linear?

Well, it was only three days for you but the Shed aged four weeks and so did the Pixies.

Wolf Lord.

You're a sweetheart for helping in this magical realm dear friend.

I'll just be sitting out in the garden behaving if anyone wants to join me.

a reply to: bally001

The pixies enjoy making their own blends. They will fix you something special if you ask.

Right now it is early morning for me so I will be having coffee.

Wanders off to the kitchen.

a reply to: gimmefootball400

Hiya Chooch!
I'm just glad ATS is still alive.