L&N Knoxville Division, complete

[landnrailroader]

ARCO Unit Train

Colleagues,

In the days of the ARCO train, 1967-1992 or so, Jellico was a crew change point where the main line
crew traded off to a mine run crew that would take the train to the loading point & return. So here
we have the loaded train passing Jellico, and then entering the 7th of 7 tunnels on the line. The
first is Pioneer located at the top of the ridge between the Clinch River water shed and the Clear
Fork water shed. 5 short tunnels are along the ridge between Pioneer & near the bottom of the
grade, with this 7th tunnel being in a gorge of Elk Fork Creek.

[landnrailroader]

I had a request from a colleague to do the north end of the AGS (NS) line from Birmingham to Chattanooga and I have
completed the track for this route. I went a bit over board in Chattanooga as I plan to use that group of world files
in a planned simulation of the NC&StL (L&N, CSX) "J" line. I've put it on the shelf for a while and have started back
to detailing the KD route.

J. H. Sullivan, P.E. (retired from CSX, SR)
Docent C&TS RR (probably retired from that too)

[landnrailroader]

Vern,

If you are referring to the very early simulation, way before MSTS or others were done, I believe you are correct as I
have it and remember running that very early sim. on Win-95 or something like that.

J. H. Sullivan

[NorthernWarrior]

Isn't Corbin to Etowah one of the routes from Trainmaster 3? Will be following this with interest and once released think I will be dusting off MSTS/OR to give it a try.

[landnrailroader]

Fonde, KY & Straight Creek (TN) mines

Fonde, KY is at the extreme end of the Clear Fork branch which was started by the L&N around 1912 and then sold to the Southern Rwy. who completed it with L&N retaining trackage rights. The mine there is long gone but it's location is indicated on older Topo. maps and I have placed a 3-bay tipple there with conveyors to either side of the narrow valley.

On Straight Creek, a few miles away, in Tennessee, Kopper Glo operated a modern prep. plant with a long conveyor going to a
loadout roughly 1/2 mile away. This mine was the last operating coal mine in the state of Tennessee and closed in mid-2019. Coal was brought in from nearby strip operations by truck and then the coal was processed and put in ground storage until ready to load
what was probably a unit train.

J. H. Sullivan
Docent-C&TS RR

[monon15]

The attached image is what the engineer sees when he gets close enough to the ARCO mine to
see the machinery etc. What surprised me after I had detailed this location and then took this
look is just how close it is to the real view.

Over the period of 11/67 to 8/78 I tested the track to this mine several times as a Southern Rwy.
employee on the track geometry car which I was responsible for. So, been there, seen that, and
now it just looks right-----.

A few hundred meters further into the left side of the loop I have removed a 10m track piece so
as to avoid loop issues that MSTS does not like. Once it is released a user can easily replace
this piece, and another at the Kingston Steam plant if they wish - and at their own risk. The
CSX units are "leased" by NS-----. I need a few more details for the mine too. This was not a
shaft mine and most of the coal was trucked to this point from stripping locations up to 5
miles away.

J. H. Sullivan
(landnrailroader)[ATTACH=CONFIG]83449[/ATTACH]

Looking good!

[landnrailroader]

Empties at ARCO

The attached image is what the engineer sees when he gets close enough to the ARCO mine to
see the machinery etc. What surprised me after I had detailed this location and then took this
look is just how close it is to the real view.

Over the period of 11/67 to 8/78 I tested the track to this mine several times as a Southern Rwy.
employee on the track geometry car which I was responsible for. So, been there, seen that, and
now it just looks right-----.

A few hundred meters further into the left side of the loop I have removed a 10m track piece so
as to avoid loop issues that MSTS does not like. Once it is released a user can easily replace
this piece, and another at the Kingston Steam plant if they wish - and at their own risk. The
CSX units are "leased" by NS-----. I need a few more details for the mine too. This was not a
shaft mine and most of the coal was trucked to this point from stripping locations up to 5
miles away.

J. H. Sullivan
(landnrailroader)

[landnrailroader]

More

Awesome! Glad I stumbled on this post, I will be on the lookout for that route.

I'll never see 83 again, so I am trying to discipline myself to produce routes that are usable & reasonable as
to detail when downloaded. Then I give blanket permission for anyone to flesh out more detail if they wish and just
footnote me as the original creator.

Probably the hardest part of creating a route for me is ROADS. They hardly show at all when selected and we only
have a limited amount of curves, junctions, etc. so I wind up creating roads that would not stand the test of a close
inspection by a local resident, but which are functional. The Divided freeways are the biggest pain as you cannot just
use the "Y" key to sculpt around them. That leaves undesired peaks or holes in the median which have to then be
tweaked individually. This route includes several of those.

J. H. Sullivan
aka landnrailroader

[RS5T_RRO]

Awesome! Glad I stumbled on this post, I will be on the lookout for that route.

[monon15]

Outstanding!

[landnrailroader]

Colleagues,

About 18 months ago, I released a route, started by Dudley Evans, which covered the KD Division (now subdivision
of CSX) from Corbin, KY to Knoxville. I included a little SR along with it. Now I am working on an expanded version
of that route which covers Corbin, KY to Etowah, TN which was the entire length of the Knoxville Division, i.e. the KD
line. This is now the KD subdivision of CSX. I have fleshed out the SR line to include Harriman Jct. to Clinton to
Knoxville which I released as separate route a decade or so ago and a little bit of the Hook & Eye line and the Etowah
to Atlanta line just so activities could start "off stage". I am also including Clinton to Jellico to the ARCO coal mine.
This latter location opened in 11/67 and one of the first movements to the ARCO mine was a test train consisting of
some "F" units and the R-1 geometry car which I managed. Arco produced a unit train of coal every few days until
the early 1990s and the line up Tackett Creek is now abandoned. Some other branches and the Knoxville to
Middlesboro, KY line are included. Earlier in 2022, Clinton to Fonde, KY and Knoxville to Middlesboro were leased
or sold to R. J. Corman and now form two Tennessee lines of that company.

Look for release late in 2022 or early 2023.

J. H. Sullivan, P.E.
retired from CSX & SR
docent, C&TS RR