CSX - Myra Shifter - 04-06-2008
Rail Fan Adventure --
While at Shelby on Sunday, April 6,2008, a "Myra Shifter" departed up the Sandy Valley & Elkhorn Sub. with 145 system empties. It was a nice day, so I figured I could expend some more film on the line without considering it a waste.
1. CSX 772-137 as seen off the new US 460 bridge at Yeager. The huge bridge is finished as are several miles of the 4-lane highway, but it won't be open for traffic for several years.
2. CSX 772 passes the Landmark Mining tipple at Esco. Those JAIX loads are parked on the spring-switch passing siding.
3. CSX 772-137 arrive at the end of the DTC block limit at Jonancy. From there on up to the mine it is Rule 105 which is similar to a yard limit.
4. CSX 772-137 drag about half their train into one siding, cut off, and then return for the other half. Here are the engines behind the the Myra federal building. The C&OHS has a nice shot taken by J. I. Kelly at this location of a 2-6-6-2 heading to Jenkins in the early '50s. I would have liked to have used that setting but trees and a junk car marred the shot. I composed the rural post office instead, a fast disappearing landmark in its own right. The milepost on the left is in Kelly's shot.
5. Drifting back down the track, the engines cross "Tunnel Road." Well, it's not exactly a tunnel.
6. 772-137 roll down the main with Premier Elkhorn's preparation plant on the hill in the background. Those loaded hoppers on the left are on the Burke Branch spur which goes up a steep grade to the stoker plant tipple. There were about 20-30 loads of stoker coal to pull also.
7. 772-137 drag the rest of their empties into the siding. It clouded up, and I was geting tired (and sunburned), so I decided to leave. Exactly how the crew manuvered to get the engines on the west end of their train I don't know. Myra probably loads at least a train a day. The SV&E past Dorton to Jenkins and Dunham was removed in the '90s.
Train images used by permission of Everett N Young
last update - 21 Feb 2013