CSX has shut down an approximately 60-mile section of the EK Subdivision between Calla, Ky., and Jackson Yard in Jackson, Ky. All rail traffic is being funneled via the branchline’s connection to former Chesapeake & Ohio rails in Martin Yard near Martin, Ky., sources confirm with Trains News Wire.
The EK Subdivision will continue in service from east of Jackson Yard to Hazard, Ky., where a coal customer at Typo, Ky., remains active. The EK Subdivision yard in Ravenna, Ky., is part of the section of track that was idled.
Trains gaining access to Hazard are using the railroad’s Big Sandy Subdivision from near Ashland, Ky., south to Martin Yard. Trains will then use the railroad’s Elkhorn and Beaver Valley and Rockhouse subdivisions to gain access to customers that remain on the EK Subdivision. All inbound and outbound traffic will use these routes, as opposed to using the western edge of the EK Subdivision.
The EK Subdivision connects to the railroad’s CC Subdivision near Winchester, Ky., and runs east toward Ravenna, Hazard, and into former C&O territory. The idled section is a signal-equipped route with a few double-tracked sections and several passing sidings.
The route once served coal customers throughout rural Kentucky. Loaded trains were sent back west to the L&N mainline near Lexington, Ky., for shipment north to Ohio or south to Georgia. Coal was also sent east to Martin for shipment south on former Clinchfield Railroad rails or north on the former C&O Big Sandy Subdivision from Pikeville, Ky., to near Ashland, Ky.
More cuts to an already crippled Clinchfield
In nearby Clinchfield country, CSX is cutting operations at its Dante, Va., terminal. Rail crews that were reporting to Dante to serve a coal mine in nearby McClure, Va., will be shifted to Shelby Yard in Pikeville, Ky. Sources say that the McClure mine will fulfill final contract loadings and then it will be idled. As a result, this will eliminate coal traffic on the far northern end of the Clinchfield Railroad between Elkhorn City and McClure Mine near Dante. Freight traffic remains in service from near Kingsport, Tenn., south to Spartanburg, S.C., on the former Clinchfield mainline.
The latest reconfiguration of rail operations in the coalfields will not result in job losses but will change how rail traffic moves through the coalfields in eastern Kentucky.
