Friday, December 11, 2009

Today's Train of Thought- Green Movement, Mountaineer Style! Dec 11, 2009


Honoring the ongoing farce that is politely being referred to as the Copenhagen Conference in my own unique way, today's very green Train of Thought features 158-mile West Virginia coal hauler Appalachian & Ohio working it's way through the hilly, lush hills of the Mountain State. The A&O has had a short but tumultuous existence so far. In March 2005, Kansas-based WATCO purchased the former Baltimore & Ohio Cowen and Pickens Subdivisions from CSX transportation. The line was in the WATCO fold for barely a year when it was sold off to Four Rivers Transportation, parent company of the Paducah & Louisville and Evansville Western Railroads. The WATCO locomotives were dispersed to other WATCO railways (the majority of them west of the Mississippi) while Four Rivers brought in their own 4-axle power in their own trademark light green & black with white trim paint scheme.

One of the A&O's main customers gained the national spotlight in January 2006 with the Sago mine disaster which killed 12 coal miners and left only one survivor. [The media initially reported that all 13 miners were alive and well- NANESB!]

Here, railpictures.net user Mark Hardin caught this image of A&O GP40-3 #2121 making its way across the Pleasant Creek Viaduct at Pleasant Creek, WV with another GP40 on their way back from the CSX interchange at Grafton with a mixed freight on a bright June 2007 day.

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