Handley, WV: C&O Coaling, Water & Yard (RO) Towers and Roundhouse

(Satellite)

Raymond Storey posted four photos with the comment: "HANDLEY WV."

1

2

 Ron Flanary  "The closed engine terminal at Handley, WV (ex-C&O) still had many of the trappings of the steam era in 1986, including water tanks, a coaling station, 115-foot turntable (long enough to handle the H8 2-6-6-6 Alleghenies) and the radial tracks of the roundhouse."

4

This topo map helped me find the remnants of the coaling tower.

1965 Montgomery Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Street View

One of the comments on Ron's photo pointed out that the yard office is also still standing. Obviously, it also used to be the yard tower.

Street View

 

 

Charlie Whipp posted
B&O  6092 leads an incredibly long string of 11 locomotives past RO tower at  Handley, WV with orders in the hoop. The hogger was concentrating on  snatching the orders which was a pretty small target, I thought that the  operator could have tied a little longer string for the delivery fork.  It looks to me like it's pulled as tight as a archery bow.  July 1988

Nicholas Marakovits: Wow didn't realize they were still using Train Orders in the late 80's. Great shot.

Tim Shanahan shared

Raymond Storey posted

Thomas Dorman

Coaling tower built for C&O in 1919 by Roberts & Schaefer Company, 500 tons capacity. Still standing.

James Kehn

Virginian EL electrics probably on way to scrapper.

1 of 8 photos shared by James Keenan, several of the photos include a view of the coaling tower.

John Joseph posted
The ready track at Handley, WV are occupied by a mix of power on this Sunday afternoon during the Winter of 1978-79 with a C&O SD35 and a couple of U30s nearest the river and a couple of GP9's on the next track.
Eric Norford: Look at that yard filled with coal. Nothing like today

Jefferson C: Mt. Vernon, IL: Mt. Vernon Coal Company

(Satellite, the mine closed in 1915)

I have separate notes concerning the junction tower.

Roger Kujawa posted
Mt. Vernon Illinois IL ~ Mount Vernon Coal Mine 1913. It looks like a railroad interlocking tower behind the coal mine seen through the legs.

Roger Kujawa shared
Dennis DeBruler I believe that tower was along the C&EI between Southern and L&N. What was the name of that tower? Since the tower in the photo is on a slight angle, I think we are looking eastish with Southern on the left and L&N on the right.

Dennis DeBruiler commented on Roger's post
It is easy to determine that the index of the mine is 752. Normally these maps have multiple numbers in a coal region. The grey number indicates the polygon and the bold number indicates the location of the tipple. This mine would explain why three railroads built so close to that spot.

Dennis DeBruiler commented on Roger's post

Dennis DeBruiler commented on Roger's post
The problem with a mine that closed in WWI is that it is hard to find more info on it. The oldest topo map I could find doesn't show it.
1933 Mount Vernon Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

Dennis DeBruiler commented on Roger's post
I checked out a 1941 aerial photo because the tower should still be standing. I think the tower in the photo is along the UP/C&EI between NS/Southern and EVWR/L&N. Since the tower in the photo is on a slight angle, I think we are looking eastish with Southern on the left and L&N on the right.

What was the name of that tower?
David Cantrell VN Tower was built by C&EI in 1894. The tower in photo above must be the first one built at the location.
David Cantrell VN Tower photo by Bill Grady from West Kentucky Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. This tower is more square than rectangular as the one in the photo above. http://westkentuckynrhs.org/.../Bill%20Grady.../BGC004.jpg

David Cantrell commented on Roger's post
Mt. Vernon's coal mine - different owners

David Cantrell commented on Roger's post
1908 Sanborn Map shows mine in relation to railroad.

David Cantrell commented on Roger's post
1908 Sanborn Map detail for Imperial Mine in Mt. Vernon. Believe this configuration matches the photo above.

David Cantrell commented on Roger's post
 1913 Sanborn Map for Mt. Vernon Coal Mine shows different building arrangement. Looks like the old was torn down.
Dennis DeBruler You know you are dealing with some serious history when a 1941 aerial is too modern.

Sangamon C: Springfield, IL: Buckley Mine B

(Satellite, Monroe Street was the railroad RoW)

Mike Coker posted
Mike Coker Chattam and Old Jacksonville RD.
Larry Miller III shared
Steven Holding All gons under the Tipple
Larry Senalik posted
Dave Durham posted
Found this pic in the Lincoln Library Sangamon Valley Collection, of Panther Creek Coal mine #1. photographer unknown.
Larry Miller III shared
Larry Senalik: I scanned this picture from a 8x10 negative. I think it was mislabeled. I believe this was Buckley Coal Co. Mine B
Bill Edrington: Great picture. Panther Creek No. 1 operated 1918-1932, was closed 1933-1942 during the Depression, then reopened until final closure in 1944. Those C&A gons would seem to place this picture sometime in the ‘20s.

Larry Senalik posted
Coal being loaded into railroad cars at the Buckley Coal Co. Mine B at Chatham & Old Jacksonville Roads in Springfield Illinois on February 4, 1926
St. Louis, Chicago & St. Paul Railroad
Brian Wilcoxon

It is actually the Chicago, Peoria & St Louis railroad

[There are several comments about the location.]

Roger Kujawa shared

Chicago Peoria & St Louis Railroad History Buffs shared

Dave Durham posted
Found this pic in the Lincoln Library Sangamon Valley Collection, of Panther Creek Coal mine #1. photographer unknown.
Larry Miller III shared
Larry Senalik: I scanned this picture from a 8x10 negative. I think it was mislabeled. I believe this was Buckley Coal Co. Mine B
Bill Edrington: Great picture. Panther Creek No. 1 operated 1918-1932, was closed 1933-1942 during the Depression, then reopened until final closure in 1944. Those C&A gons would seem to place this picture sometime in the ‘20s.

Larry Senalik commented on Dave's post
Here's a better picture of the builder's plate

[After Larry corrected Dave about the labelling.]
Dave commented on his post
Very well could be, this pic was grouped in with it; I thought the photographer did an incredible job.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
Monroe Street is on the RoW of the Chicago, Springfield & St. Louis RR. There were two tipples there.
1940 Springfield Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
Buckley Coal was one of the owners of Mine B, so it is index 617.
[Directory]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
They forgot to put 617 on their map, but given that Section 31 is west of 32, I think Mine B is the tipple that was closer to Old Jacksonville Road.
[Map]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
 It looks like Owen Marsh Elementary School is built rather close to an old mine dump.
Springfield West Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
Both tipples should have existed in this 1939 aerial. I don't know why we don't see more than a little building in the Mine B area. The car loading was over at the Mine A area.
https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/.../0bhd03048.jpg

Paintsville, KY: CSX/C&O/BSKR Railyard and Coaling Tower

(Satellite, it looks like there are a lot of empty coal cars in storage)

BSKR = Big Sandy & Kentucky River

This is another example of where they have removed the metal of the skip hoist, but not of the stairwells.

F Will Martin posted
Coal tower at Paintsville, KY, 3-3-95, Ex. C&O. Kodachrome by FW Martin.
Dennis DeBruler Accordingto Historic Aerials, it was gone by 2004. It was about here:
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

You can see the square between two tracks near the bottom left of the yard where this tower used to be.

1954 Paintsville Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Columbus, OH: NS/Pennsy Buckeye Yard and N&W Watkins Yard

Buckeye: (Satellite) A CSX intermodal yard is just east of the NS railyard
Watkins: (Satellite) Has a NS intermodal yard

According to the comments the hump yard was closed in 2009 and NS now plans to "scrape the land" and sell it. I see from the satellite image that Columbus urban sprawl has swallowed this yard.  I include Watkins Yard in these notes because that is where NS does the little classification work that remains in this area.

The yard is not on a 1962 topo map, but it is on a 1966 topo. A 1965 historic aerial photo shows just farm land, but the next photo, 1971, does show the yard. Of note, the 1965 photo does not have any interstates, but the 1971 aerial does have them. It turns out the 1966 topo trusted the plans that the 4.5 mile long yard would be built because it wasn't started by PC until 1969 and it wasn't completed until 1970.  This site contains a lot of interesting information from a PC booklet developed for its employees.

Diagram via penncentral.railfan

JB Ward posted
A blast for m the past, 1968. I spent my career there from 1972 to 2009. It shows best when you magnify it.
Allen Whitaker It's a shame what it is now. That's one of the easiest yards to navigate.
Matt Fisher JB Ward , they just retied Groups 3-5 in the bowl for Storage before they decided to put it up For Sale. I don’t think anyone will buy it with the tracks intact. It’s supposedly only For Sale for Non-rail related endeavors and potential buyers probably don’t want to have to clean up the stuff and remove all the tracks. Only portion they plan on keeping is 7-8-9 Departure which supposedly is to keep CSX from buying any of it to expand the Van Yard and have a couple tracks for Camp Chase Industrial RR to interchange.
JB Ward I agree with you on the clean up, it could be a toxic mess after all the years of operations. I was involved on many clean-ups throughout my tenure. I personally know of 2 evacuations over my time there. That not to diminish the fact that there are thousands of miles of underground fiber optic and other cables buried throughout the entire yard.
[So NS severed the hump tracks, restored the hump tracks, then decided to sell it. I doubt if NS created all of that track work to provide jobs for their MoW personnel. I'd bet on incompetent planning. There seems to be a race between NS and CSX as to whose so called PSR can be stupider.]

JB Ward commented on his post
Steve Pajak Nice aerial shot! What railroad or contractor owns the two motors in the picture?
Matt Fisher Steve Pajak , Camp Chase Industrial RR. They interchange with NS here several times a week.
Steve Pajak Matt Fisher thank you. Where else does the Camp Chase operate?
Matt Fisher Steve Pajak , old NYC line between Miami Crossing and Lilly Chapel

Photography by BT posted
An aerial view reveals the emptiness of Norfolk Southern's primarily closed Buckeye Yard in Columbus, Ohio. CSX continues to use the van yard on the northeast side and the Camp Chase Industrial Railroad can be seen making their interchange in the receiving yard.
11/20/2019
Ed Bell It was made irrelevant by a combination of Conrail abandonments and the later split of CR between CSX and NS.

Richard Stewart shared
Nicholas Thurn Where does NS do their operations now?
Matt Fisher Nicholas Thurn , Buckeye Yard was idled in May 2009 as an active classification yard. It became a storage facility for cars afterward. What little classification work was left was shifted across town to Watkins Yard. Today Buckeye is for sale. Rumor has it all non rail related so most of the tracks and buildings will be demolished and removed.

Once again, I capture a satellite image of a hump yard because it is going to disappear from future satellite images. it already looks like the yard tower has disappeared.

Satellite

Satellite

Street View, looking North   We can see just the lead track to the hump up the middle of this photo.

Street View, looking South

A photo of a Conrail coal train being shoved over the hump The caboose is between the engines and coal cars. This photo does catch a glimpse of the yard tower. I thought by Conrail's time that all coal trains were unit trains, so a coal train being classified was quite a surprise for me.

safe_image for 8:41 YouTube Video
"Xebec realty released news of buying the yard. As of August of 2021 Xebec, A Dallas based Industrial real estate firm has acquired 405 acres of the former Buckeye yard. Plans are to develop the property into a warehouse complex and will allow for Norfolk Southern to maintain rail service to the facilities."

Winston-Salem, NC: Ingredion/Corn Products Plant and a Hopper Car Fire

(3D Satellite)

I learned that the Ingredion/Corn Proudcts plant in the Chicago area is not the only one in the country because the plant south of Winston-Salem had the corn in a hopper car catch on fire.

Winston-Salem Fire Department
[The red is from the flashing red lights, not the fire.]

Street View

Street View

WWII
Authorities have not said what caused the fire.
No injuries were reported.
Officials say 180,000 pounds of corn product were inside the rail car

David Luyster shared
David Jordan Ingredion...opened by Corn Products in 1981 to replace its Pekin, Illinois plant.

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's share
 I noticed in a street view that they had their own locomotive. Here is a better view of it.
https://www.google.com/.../@36.0335771.../data=!3m1!1e3...
Judging from the Corn Products car, they also ship product by rail because that is not a grain hopper.

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's share
Looking some more, they must ship liquids (corn syrup) as well as powders. Only the first four cuts of cars look like grain hoppers.
https://www.google.com/.../@36.0341681.../data=!3m1!1e3...
David Jordan Yes, it is a wet corn mill, producing corn syrup and starch, along with several by-products.

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's share
The railroad is of interest: Winston Salem Southbound. (I've seen both WSS and WSSB.) It was jointly operated by N&W and ACL.
https://www.wvncrails.org/winston-salem-southbound...
Now it leases stock from both NS and CSX.
https://www.ncrailways.org/railr.../winston-salem-southbound
The headquarters is right next door to Ingredion near the north end of the railroad.
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

New Athens, IL: Kaskaskia River Port District #1

(Satellite)

The KRPD #1 was made possible by the lock and dam near the mouth of the Kaskaskia River.

KaskaskiaPort

The KRPD #1 facility was originally an outbound facility built by Peabody Coal in 1977, and it shipped 48 million tons of coal until that operation stopped in 1999. The part we see in operation in the images is a new inbound facility that can load unit trains up to 125 cars long. [KRPD1] Coal produced a few millions tons per year in the 1980s and 90s. [USACE-click Annual Tonnage]
The port is served by the KRPD and PCCX railroads.

Roger Kujawa posted
Kaskaskia River Dock. Coal Mine Sticker, Peabody Coal 1986 , Mining Hard Hat Decal

Note the excavator and towboat are actively processing an inbound barge.

BusinessViewMagazine, p2
The KRPD ranks as the 72nd largest port in the country and its 8th largest inland port.

"7th largest inland port as measured by ton/miles and 9th largest inland port in the coutnry." [KaskaskiaPort] (That is probably the district, not just this #1 facility. Other KRPD facilities include Fayetteville Terminal, #2, Kellogg, and Grain Terminal. They also operate a marina and grill in Evansville, IL.)

It appears the satellite also caught an inbound operation.

Satellite

Fort Wayne, IN: 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak

I was in high school in Fort Wayne when this happened.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Who remembers this?

Here is an issue of the Fort Wayne (Indiana) News-Sentinel newspaper, dated Tuesday, April 13, 1965, with coverage of the swarm of tornadoes that swept through northern Indiana and other nearby states two days earlier in what became known as the "Palm Sunday Outbreak."

On Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965, Indiana was one of six Midwest states to be raked by deadly tornadoes. In all, 47 tornadoes killed 271 people and injured over 1,500. This was the fourth deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history and the deadliest of all Indiana outbreaks.
Samii Taylor Yakovetic If my childhood memories serve me, those were some of the first swarm tornadoes - they violated normal rules of tornadoes by following watercourses for long distances and remaining on he ground for extended periods of time. Is this the storm that wiped out Zanesville, OH?
Maury Harris Not sure about Zanesville; they did have a twister in November of 1965. Their worst was in 1912. Might you be thinking of Xenia? "On April 3, 1974, an F5 category tornado struck Xenia, Ohio. The tornado that struck Xenia was just one of at least 148 tornados that occurred in the South and Midwest in a twenty-four period. This was the worst outbreak of tornados recorded in the twentieth century." Ohio History Central
Scott Gilbert Yeah, I bet the question refers to Xenia in the Super Outbreak of 1974. I know the daughter of the man who was the Xenia fire chief then.

Sandy Race Remember it well, the grocery stores were giving frozen food away! Electricity was out and everything was melting!
Dennis DeBruler Indiana & Michigan lost everyone of their high-tension lines that fed the city. So all of the I&M customers lost their power. We had City Utilities at the time, so we didn't feel that impact.

(new window)