NS maintenance-of-way crews cut the rails earlier this week putting 50 miles of mainline railroad in southeast Ohio out-of-service.
The former Conrail line connecting Columbus, Ohio, with Dickinson Yard in Belle, W.Va., is now out of service between Glouster, Ohio, and just south of Hobson Yard in Middleport, Ohio. To the north of the severed connection, Genesee & Wyoming’s Ohio Central Railroad continues to serve a coal mine at Milepost 65.5 in central Ohio.
South of Hobson Yard in Middleport, the rails are out-of-service as far south as a section of CSX Transportation-owned right of way at Milepost 116.5. The out-of-service section encompasses 50 miles of mainline rail in addition to several yard tracks in Hobson, a siding, and a couple of industrial spur tracks north of Hobson Yard. There was no online business on the section of track recently removed from service.
NS detoured the two daily general merchandise freight trains that operated on the West Virginia Secondary in February, removing most rail traffic from the line. Norfolk Southern is providing local service to customers with a new local that operates six days a week between Alloy, W.Va., and Nitro, W.Va. To the north of Nitro, trains will operate as needed to the CSX and NS interchange at Milepost 128.6 in Point Pleasant, W.Va. Service to the interchange requires a round trip distance of about 100 miles from Nitro Yard at Milepost 170.
While the rails north of Nitro Yard remain in service, only a couple trains per month are running north of Nitro to pickup inbound cars at two local industries and the interchange. Despite the irregular shipments, local fans recently spotted an NS ballast train near Point Pleasant.
Norfolk Southern has yet to say if it will reactivate any portion of the idled section.
