The Cumberland Mine Railroad is a

private carrier A private carrier is a company that transports only its own goods.Longman Business English Dictionary The carrier's primary business is not transportation. Private carriers may refuse to sell their services at their own discretion, but common carri ...

mine railroad A mine railway (or mine railroad, U.S.), sometimes pit railway, is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mine. Materials transported typically include ore, coal and overburden (also called variously spoils, waste, ...

serving the Cumberland Coal Resources mine near

Waynesburg, Pennsylvania Waynesburg is a borough in and the county seat of Greene County, Pennsylvania, United States, located about south of Pittsburgh. Its population was 3,987 at the 2020 census. The region around Waynesburg is underlaid with several layers of cok ...

. Operations on the mine and associated railroad began in November 1976. The line was originally developed by

United States Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

as a source of

steam coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

for export to Canada. Subsequently, the mine and railroad have changed hands several times. As of January 2021 they are owned by Iron Senergy Holding LLC, and this coal is being consumed by domestic power plants. The tracks extend 17 miles from the preparation plant (located about 2 miles west of

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

) to the Alicia Dock barge-loading facility on the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

north of

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

. The barges deliver the loads to the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

at East Millsboro. It is an isolated railroad, not connected to the North American railroad network. Rolling stock was delivered by the Norfolk Southern to a siding in Poland Mines, and then taken by truck and trailer to the railroad's dockside terminus near Masontown. One EMD SD-40 and two SD38-2

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the u ...

comprise the power roster. Most trips convey roughly 35 to 38 (38 cars is the max amount capable of fitting in the loading/unloading facilities) leased and owned coal cars, often with two locomotives operating in "push-pull" mode.

References

External links

Trains Magazine

Railroad Fan.com

The Diesel Shop

Trainorders.com

Flickr

Observer-Reporter

References

External links

Further reading