CSX's former Tygart Subdivision - Wild and Wonderful

CSX's former Tygart Subdivision is a scenic section of railroad constructed in the early decades of the 20th century. Originally built in sections by two different railroads, the line passes through some of the most rugged terrain in the Allegheny Mountains. The events which would lead to the construction of the Tygart Subdivision began in 1889, when the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad arrived in Elkins. Under it's owners influence, H.G. Davis, the WVC&P sought to connect with the C&O RR running through the southern section of West Virignia. An attempt was made to achieve this goal in 1899, when a branch was built south from Elkins to Huttonsville, West Virginia. However, this route's future costs were deemed too expensive and the planned route was dropped. In it's place, the WVC&P chartered the Coal and Iron Railroad, with it's planned route heading east from Elkins to Durbin, WV, where it would connect with the C&O's new Greenbrier Branch from Ronceverte. The construction of this line was a major project, not to mention expensive, which began in 1900 and lasted until 1903. To reach the C&O in Durbin, the Coal and Iron had to build over two major obstacles, the Cheat and Shavers Mountains. Eastbound trains out of Elkins faced a five mile grade of 2.35% up Cheat Mountain to Tunnel #1, where the railroad bored through the crest of the ridge.

From the town of Tunnel, the railroad dropped down the eastern side of Cheat Mountain into the Shavers Fork Valley on an eight mile long grade of 1.75%. At the bottom, the railroad followed the Shavers Fork River upstream on grades approaching 1.55% for twenty one miles until it reached the current site of Elk River Junction. Here, the C&I made a 180 degree turnabout across the valley and headed east leaving the Shavers Fork River by tunneling through Shavers Mountain at Tunnel #2 near Glady, WV. From Glady, the railroad followed the Greenbrier River the rest of the way to Durbin - this section between Elkins and Durbin would be called the Durbin Subdivision until the Chessie Era in the 1970s. The construction of the next section of the Tygart Subdivision began in 1910 when the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company built a narrow gauge logging railroad from Cass, West Virginia, to a location on the other side of Shavers Mountain, known as Spruce, West Virginia. The town of Spruce would become the mecca of the early 20th century lumbering and mining communities, resulting in it serving as a regional focal point for the Western Maryland Railway's operations between the 1920s and the 1950s - but more on the WM later. Of course before this could happen, Spruce needed a rail connection with the outside world. During 1910, the newly chartered Greebrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad began construction of two lines out of Spruce, one heading east and one heading west. The western section was the first to be completed, reaching the town of Bergoo, West Virginia, in 1914. This section of the line was particually steep, with a two mile grade of 3.0% heading out of Spruce to a summit of 4066 feet. This summit is located in a deep cut and is the highest standard gauge mainline rail east of the Mississippi River, or was until CSX abandoned it! On the western side of the Summit Cut, the GC&E dropped down Middle Mountain towards the Elk River at Slaty Fork, West Virginia, on a downhill grade reaching 2.88% in places. At Slaty Fork, a small station was established to coordinate the Bergoo operations, named Laurel Bank. Laurel Bank would become the center of the Western Maryland and later Chessie and CSX operations below Elkins, following the closing of the Spruce facilities in 1950. The Tygart Subdivision ended here, with the Laurel Subdivision heading west towards Bergoo and Webster Springs. Following the completion of the western end of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad, work shifted to the section east of Spruce, which was finished by 1917. This 38 mile section followed the Shavers Fork downstream to a connection with the former C&I's Durbin Line, now under Western Maryland control since 1905, at Cheat Junction. In 1927, the same fate befell the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad when it was also acquired by the growing Western Maryland, who renamed the portion from Cheat Junction to Bergoo as the GC&E subdivision - north of Cheat Junction the railroad was the WM's Durbin Subdivision but for the sake of simplicty, the entire subdivison will be referred to as CSX came to call it, the Tygart subdivision. Under WM ownership, the Tygart Subdivision's rough spots were smoothed out and in 1931, a solution to the Elkins to Spruce via Durbin problem was undertaken by the railway. Originally when the GC&E RR connected with the Camp;I's Durbin line, trains between Elkins and Spruce had to make a move to Durbin, and then backtrack to go continue to their destination. This problem was solved in the 1931 improvement, with the construction of a new mile long connecting track on a 2.5% grade between the Tygart and Durbin lines, with Greenbrier Junction situated on the southern end and Elk Junction on the northern interlocking.

Following the end of the lumber industry's boom during the first half of the 20th century, the Tygart Subdivision's traffic became almost entirely coal shipments. However, with the exception of a coal loader near Cheat Bridge, WV, the Tygart Sub relied on the coal coming from the mines west of Laurel Bank on the Laurel Subdivision and the small amount of traffic coming off of the Durbin line until it's abandonment in 1985. In the early 1980s, several of the mines on the Laurel Subdivision began to close up or decrease shipments, resulting in the number of trains using the subdivision to also decrease. As early as 1978, the Chessie System had been studying the Tygart Subdivision south of Cheat Bridge for abandonment, but enough traffic was being moved at that time to keep the railroad in service. Unfortunately, this changed in the early 1990's, resulting in CSX deciding that it was too expensive to maintain over 75 miles of rail to just service the only remaining mine west of Laurel Bank, the Elk Head operation. The last CSX train over the Tygart Subdivison departed from Laurel Bank on December 29th, 1994 as Laurel Bank East B826-29, with 37 loads of coal. At Spruce, the Laurel Bank Turn picked up another 37 loads of coal which had been left on the siding the previous evening, before continuing onto Elkins. A very short time later, CSX issued an order removing the entire subdivision from service betweem MP BUK30.0 and MP BUK101.7 at 2am on February 13th, 1995. Five months later, the WVC&P's original attempt at a mountain crossing, the Dailey Industrial Track, was removed from service and abandoned between MP 28.5 (Huttonsville Jct.) and MP 9.6 (End of Track). The end officially came a little less than two years later when CSX issued a bulletin stating that the entire Tygart Subdivision between MP BUK 28.4 and MP BUK 101.7 would be abandoned, effective at 00:01 January 25th, 1997 . Fortunately, the track was left down and during the same year, the Tygart Subdivision, along with the entire length of CSX track between Tygart Jct and Bergoo, was handed over to the state of West Virginia's newest railroad, the West Virginia Central.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. An Elkins Turn out of Grafton is crossing the Tygart Valley River in Elkins, WV, on October 4, 1987. A few years later this bridge was taken out by CSX when the Elkins yard was closed.

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Photo by Chris Strogen. CSX #2313 and train B813-25 are sitting on the former junction of the Belington and Tygart subs at the northern end of the wye in Elkins, WV. The track use to run across the river to Elkins yard, but during the last years of the CSX era, the wye was used to turn the Elkins local.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. A westbound Laurel Bank Extra is departing Elkins on the bridge over US 219 on August 23rd, 1987. The train is taking empties to the Laurel Bank yard, where a Laurel Bank Switcher would forward them to the mine at Hickory Lick.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. An eastbound Laurel Bank Extra is rounding the Isner Loop near Canfield on November 19th, 1988.

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In the late fall of the early 1970s, WM RS3 #194 has stopped with a Forest Festival passenger excursion near Bowden, WV. In the background, a Shay locomotive from Cass is taking on coal for the remainder of the trip.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. CSX #4262 on B823-23, a Laurel Bank Turn, is westbound at Cheat Bridge, WV, on July 23, 1993. The train is passing by the New Era Resources Corporation (now closed) Cheat Bridge Preparation Plant enroute to Laurel Bank.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. CSX #6009 is stopped at Cheat Bridge, WV, on October 22, 1992. The crew of the B905, Laurel Bank Turn West, is releasing the 'Bow', 'Bemis', and 'Harp' DTC blocks back to the CI Dispatcher. To the right is another view of the New Era Resources Corporation's Cheat Bridge prep plant.
The next four photos were taken at Spruce, West Virginia, on October 8, 1994.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. The Laurel Bank Switcher, B825-08, consisting of three units and the Laurel Bank Helper, B286-08, which also consists of 3 units including a Conrail GP40-2 #3380, have arrived at Spruce. The helper set has cut away from the rear of the switcher and the head end power is shoving the first cut of loads into Spruce siding.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. Same scene as the above shot.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. The Laurel Bank Helper now pulls by the head end power after is has cleared the main.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. The crew has recoupled all six units together and will soon return lite to Laurel Bank. Upon arrival at Laurel Bank, they will tie up the power and deadhead to Elkins for rest. A new crew will then be called to taxi from Elkins to Laurel Bank, get all six units plus the remaining loads from Hickory Lick left in the yard and head "east" (by the railroad timetable) back to Elkins as a B826 (Laurel Bank Turn East) and B287 (Laurel Bank helper). The loads left at Spruce siding by the previous switcher will be added to the train enroute to Elkins.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. It's October 15th, 1986, as an Eastbound Laurel Bank Extra rounds the horseshoe curve at the ghost town of Spruce. In 1996, the Cass Scenic Railroad built a connection from their "mainline" to Spruce for new excursions and on Memorial Day of 1999, the West Virginia Central began running their railbus excursions to Spruce. After many years of being isolated from the world by several miles of rough terrain, Spruce is once again being "revived" by the railroads.

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Photo by Randy Strogen. Western Maryland RS3 #186 and the Forest Festival excursion train have arrived at Spruce, WV, in October of 1973. This shot is a rare one from the Western Maryland era before the flag began to fade.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. Westbound Laurel Bank Turn, B905, is about to pass over the US Route 219 bridge at Mt. Airy, WV, on October 22, 1992. The lead unit has just entered the 'Airy' DTC block and the crew will soon call the CI dispatcher in Jacksonville in order to release the "Trout" DTC block. The units are holding the train back on a stiff 2.8% grade as they head down Middle Mountain towards Laurel Bank.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. On a different day and angle, CSX GP30 #4262 on Laurel Bank West, B823-23, is about to enter the 'Airy' DTC block at Mt. Airy, WV, on July 23, 1993.

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Photo by Ron Stafford. CSX #6615 with Laurel Bank Turn (West) B823-06 is near MP 94, just west of Mt. Airy, WV on October 7, 1994. For those of you who have the fortune of owning Steve Salamon and William Hopkins book "The Western Maryland Railway In The Diesel Era", compare this shot to the one on page 123 - The same location but 22 years later.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. An eastbound Laurel Bank Switcher is dragging a cut of coal up the steep 2.8% grade to Spruce from Laurel Bank. The train is high above a mountain farm at Mt Airy on October 15th, 1986.

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Photo by Kevin Scanlon. The same Laurel Bank Switcher is westbound at Mt Airy, returning light with a caboose to Laurel Bank after leaving the cut of cars at Spruce. Those loads will be picked up by the next crew on the eastbound Laurel Bank Extra.

[CSX Tygart Subdivision Timetable]