I'm from floyd county. I always wanted to build a rail cart and ride up and down the old railroads around here. I'm missing my chance. The old railroad that went through the backyard where i grew up was taken up to build the prestonsburg passage walking trail. It hurt to see them rip up that old track, so many memories. It was unused for half my life. They just used it as a place to park trains off the main line around Prestonsburg. A section of track washed out really bad a couple of years ago and i called to report it so they wouldn't end up in the creek backing trains up that way. I think that was the final nail in the coffin. To much to repair, for so little use of the track. Although, you could say i'm the reason we have the prestonsburg passage now!
I know what you mean I grew up in mt sterling ky and they took the train tracks up .I always loved hearing the train as it came through when I was a kid
From what I can see, this is still an active rail line. It connects several large rail yards, in fact. Plus, signals are still lit up and powered on further down the line. That rust looked very thin for being abandoned. The line is 100% intact, following it on Google Maps for miles in either direction. Plus, I saw rail cars in both directions, still linked together in rail yards and on sidings at grain storage plants. It's the type of rail line that sees one or two trains a day from the looks of it. And often, tracks that see that few in a day rust over in between trains. The WSOR line here in Wisconsin sees two trains every 24 hours or so. It is mostly dark territory and often looks like an abandoned line to many people. The rail often rusts with moisture and damp, colder temperatures. But before you know it, a long freight train will suddenly appear without warning, traveling at 40 Mph on a line with many wooden cross bucks and a few automated signals occasionally. It is a very quiet rail line that goes through very tiny towns with just a few houses at most. And at night and on foggy nights, it's something like out of a horror fiction novel. But if you are there at the right time, a train will suddenly come from the darkness at 40 Mph. I have personally witnessed this several times with this rail line. It looks abandoned until it isn't. The track and bridges are old and not in the best of shape. But yet, two 40 Mph trains go by once every 24+ hours, usually one in each direction. So it's probably good you didn't go into the tunnels too far. You could have found a big surprise if you hadn't expected it. And the grass hanging over the tunnel openings would just blow and move out of the way once a train hit it. 🙂
@MrHurricaneFloyd Google Maps shows it's still active, and just a short distance away, the line connects to a huge rail yard. Plus, I just looked at a Railroad atlas, and it's still considered active. It's owned by CSX. It's just an infrequently used line.
I grew up in Oneida in Clay County. Oneida is where the South Fork of the Kentucky River begins. There are some rails for coal trains here but mainly in the southern part of the county. CSX owns all the rails now and they have abandoned most of them, letting them rust and rot away. All the coal around from Oneida was hauled out by truck. You are right, Kentucky is a beautiful state, especially in the mountains.
I went throught these tunnels in 2011 and the railheads were shiny at the time. The decline in coal is probably why these tracks are no longer used. They were in good shape at the time.
I'm not being rude when I say this but don't ever ever go exploring without a good flashlight .Please keep way more flashlights than you need .Nice vieo , I just subscribed.
Unfortunately most of the coal mines west of and around Hazard are history. You can tell that the raill has not seen a train in a spell. Even so JDB you are trespassing unless you got permission to be out there. Originally there was one tunnel here but the 2nd was built when the line was double tracked a long time ago. There are a few other pairs like this in the same area and right at Hazard, there is Hazard Tunnel. There are more east of Hazard and some mining is still going on. J. H. Sullivan (railroadman32257) retired from Southern & CSX
