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In August of '99, Paul Didelius and I made a pilgrimage to the Mountain State in search of trains. One of the major discoveries of that trip was the Cowen Subdivision, an old B&O coal branch in the north-central part of the state. We didn't have much luck finding trains on that trip and vowed to return. It took us a year, but we made it back.
Friday, August 18, 2000:
I arrived in Grafton, WV shortly after 8:00 am. This was my visit to old B&O hub and I began the day by scoping out the yards. Grafton is a refreshing dose of railroading for someone used to life on a run-through junction (St. Albans, WV in my case). Several trains originate and terminate in the yard and locomotives are fueled and serviced between assignments. It wasn't a very busy day, but the action was steady, with a train arriving or departing every hour or two. Q316, the daily eastbound manifest freight, was running late since its crew outlawed at Simpson. I followed the recrew to the train and then chased into town on the Bridgeport Sub.
I was really hoping to chase an eastbound train up the Mountain Sub, and it was beginning to look like 316 was going to be my only chance. I decided to wait for it to leave and managed to get a few shots by the historic D Tower in the process.
316 finally got under way and the chase was on. I didn't get very many shots, although the ones I took came out pretty good, especially considering the weather. More rewarding than that was the experience of pacing a train up Cranberry Grade's 2.8% out of M&K Junction. Two SD40-2's and a GP38-2 were on the point and three SD60's were shoving on the rear, all in the 8th notch. I went all the way to the summit at Terra Alta where the helper cut off to head back to M&K. I also turned around there, to head back to Grafton and find Paul.
We met up at the overhead bridge in Grafton, and had the good fortune of running into Matt Reese in the process. Matt is a local railfan and maintains the excellent Northern West Virginia's Railroads website. After exchanging greetings, Paul and I headed for dinner and "The End of the World," aka the southern end of the Cowen Sub. One of the main goals of this trip was getting a shot at the Laurel Creek bridge near Centralia. That seemed like a good enough reason to camp there Friday night, and we managed to find the way to our spot in the darkness of night. We made camp under a star-filled West Virginia sky and went to sleep to the rush of water in Laurel Creek.
Saturday, August 19, 2000:
We awoke before dawn and headed down the stream to set up for a shot. Since we heard no trains all night, we were expecting a southbound or two heading for the mines. Unfortunately, an unseasonly wet August had the creek much too high to wade, somewhat of a necessity to get the best photographic angles. We decided to break camp and look for shots elsewhere. No sooner had we got back to the grade crossing at Centralia than a southbound rumbled through. True to the first law of railfanning, the best way to make a train come is to leave. We were disappointed at missing it, but decided to cut our losses and do some exploring. It would surely be quite sometime before another train came through, right? Well, not quite. Our exploring wasn't very productive, and we ended up heading to Erbacon, arriving at the same time as a Brooks Run turn. So that was two trains, and no good shots. Both of those trains took all day loading and returned north under the cover of darkness (grumble...grumble...).
Fortunately, the day was not lost. The crew at Evergreen Mine in Cowen was very friendly--they let us hang out there for most of the afternoon while they loaded a train of VAPX hoppers. We got several good shots and enjoyed talking with the train crew and mine employee (pictured below at left). Afterwards, we did some more exploring which proved considerably more productived than the morning's adventure. We found several good shots up the line that are worth coming back for. At sunset, we went back to Brooks Run for a few shots of the loaded train at the tipple (below center and left).
Sunday, August 20, 2000:
We spent the night on the hill north of Burnsville and listened to both loaded trains crawl through in the darkness. Early Sunday morning, an empty Cowen train came south through the fog, led by a C30-7 and C40-8. I jetted south to Erbacon and went a few miles north up Laurel Creek for a one-shot wonder (well, actually two since I also took a going away shot).
Paul and I spent the afternoon scouting location along the northern end of the line between Buchannon and Grafton. We heard something about a local at Tygart Junctin, but it never showed up. Paul had to go back to Cleveland around 3:00, so I headed back to Grafton to see what was going on. Shortly after I got there, a T812 left for Cowen behind a SD70AC and a CW44AC. I chased it south--unfortunately the clouds hosed me at Pleasant Creek, but I got a decent church shot at Rangoon.
A wrong turn prevent further chasing, but I hopped on I-79 and easily beat the train to the overhead bridge at Chapman. There, I fired off my final shots of the trip in the last rays of daylight. I then made the long drive back to Dresden, wishing I could have stayed to watch the loaded train come north on Monday.
All in all it was a good weekend, even if the train count was somewhat small. Successful exploration and spending Saturday afternoon at Evergreen helped to make up for the lack of daylight movements. We had a good time and found plenty of good shots to try for on our next trip to the Cowen Sub. And best of all, we got to enjoy a weekend of beautiful weather and beautiful scenery along the railroads of West Virginia. 'Til the next time,
Scott
