Big Eagle Railroad
Dec 2017 / RWH
If one were to search for a railroad on a small scale that encapsulates Appalachian coal operations, the former Winifrede/current Big Eagle Railroad of today just might be the recipe to satisfy the appetite. Roughly six miles in length, it retains charisma from a bygone era and an interesting operational layout packed into a small area. Included in this venue is a river coal dock, a small marshaling yard, jointed rail track that literally parallels a road, and an old engine house from years long since passed. The creek valley through which it runs enhances the setting as does the small community atmosphere of which it touches. Its lifeblood is a mining load out at the end of the line and its connection to the broader world an interchange with CSX near Chesapeake, WV. Its foundation is a history that predates the Civil War establishing the Fields Creek drainage among the earliest railroad locations in West Virginia.
The Big Eagle Railroad was organized in 2000 to resume operations on the historic 7-mile coal-hauling shortline originally known as the Winifrede Railroad -- previously one of the nation's oldest shortline railroads. The Winifrede was incorporated in 1881 to carry coal from Carbon, West Virginia down to a location on the Kanawha River situated between Chesapeake and Chelyan, WV. After the turn of the century, interchange would be made with mainline of the Chesapeake & Ohio. Coal business on the Winifrede waxed and waned over the decades, and operations were finally suspended in 1989. Big Eagle was organized by Appalachian Railcar Services after a decade of dormancy on the line, hauling outbound coal from the Blackhawk Mining Kanawha Eagle coal mine for export via an interchange with CSX Transportation at Winifrede Junction, near the river. Various locomotives were utilized on the Big Eagle, including a pair of Geeps leased from General American Tank Locomotive Group. Big Eagle operation of the line ended in early 2019, when nearby Kanawha River Railroad assumed operations.
1910 Official Guide ad / collection
1893 Official Guide ad / collection
1910 Official Guide ad / collection
1955 Official Guide ad / collection
1968 Official Guide ad / collection
1988 Official Guide ad / collection
Motive Power
GATX Rail Locomotive Group #2109
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
GATX Rail Locomotive Group #2109
to Locomotive Leasing Partners #2232
to GATX Locomotive Group #2109
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
GATX Rail Locomotive Group #2115
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
GATX Rail Locomotive Group #2115
to Missouri Pacific #2243
to Union Pacific #743
to GATX Rail Locomotive Group #2115
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Locations
Winifrede
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
RWH
Click to see this location plotted on a Google Maps page
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Winifrede, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Click to see the Carbon yard area plotted on a Google Maps page
Big Eagle mine overhead / Google Maps
Big Eagle mine / Carbon, WV / 2016 / Dan Robie / from WVNC Rails
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Video
Dec 2017 / Ben Wells
Lagniappe
West Virginia short line expands
by Chase Gunnoe | January 16, 2019
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Watco Cos.’ Kanawha River Railroad is expanding its presence in southern West Virginia with the operation of one of the state’s oldest short line railroads – the Winifrede Railroad near Charleston.
Watco officials confirm with Trains News Wire that the Kanawha River Railroad is in the process of taking over coal loading operations on the original 6-mile Winifrede Railroad. The Big Eagle Railroad, operated by Appalachian Railcar Services, has handled operations on the branch line for more than a decade.
Kanawha River Railroad General Manager Derrick W. Jackson says the railroad is familiarizing its train crews with the rail line and will begin loading coal trains on the obscure branch line in the near future. The branch line interchanges with CSX Transportation’s former Chesapeake & Ohio mainline near Chesapeake, W.Va., southeast of Charleston. The line is separate from the railroad’s 308-mile rail line located across the Kanawha River.
Railroad crews will use GATX Rail-leased EMD GP38-2s to load coal trains at the Blackhawk Mining-owned Kanawha Eagle coal mine. According to Blackhawk’s description, metallurgical, thermal, and stoker coals mined at the facility are sold to domestic and international steel companies, electric utilities, and industrial end-users.
Recent operations indicate the facility and its rail line will load an average of 2-3 coal trains per month. The branch line accompanies the railroad’s existing coal and freight customer base extending from central Ohio to southern West Virginia on tracks formerly operated by Norfolk Southern. Kanawha River began operating the former NS line in July 2016 through a lease agreement with the Class I railroad.
Assuming operations on the nearby Winifrede Railroad is the railroad’s latest move in expanding coal and freight business since inking a fly ash transload deal at two rail yards in southern Ohio and West Virginia.
It’s unknown how many carloads the new operation will add to the railroad’s annual carloads. The railroad hauls an average of 40,000 railcars annually.
Big Eagle Noir
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
I knew the moment we rolled up on the steam-era enginehouse outside little Winifrede that we had found something special. I just didn't know what it was. Turns out it was the legacy of the Winifrede Railroad, one of the country's oldest shortlines. Big Ben Wells and I had come up the valley to poke around because he he had heard about the Big Eagle operation. Little did we know we'd catch an uphill empty drag in motion. But catch it we did, the saturated clean colors of the GATX lease Geeps a great contrast to the gray cloudy morning skies. The crew was friendly and there was plenty to see as the empties made it to the top of the line and the Big Eagle mine, just out of view from the small yard in what the railroad always called "Carbon." The Geeps left the yard solo and went into the load out, out of view ... and then returned just as we had been promised. "We'll be back soon," shouted the brakeman, generous as he was to give us some intel. It was hard to believe, as I would later learn, that this more-than-a-century-old pike started as narrow gauge rail hammered directly on wood. But that was then; now, the Big Eagle was living into its big name: two modern Geeps turning the RPMs to get long cuts of empties up the hill and loaded export coal back down.
Carbon, WV / Dec 2017 / RWH
Links / Sources
- Appalachian Railcar Services
- Wikipedia article for Winifrede, West Virginia
- Two Short Lines of the Kanawha Valley - WVRails.net
- A 7 Mile Coal Line: The Big Eagle Railroad - TrainOrders.org
- West Virginia North Carolina Rails - Big Eagle overview
- West Virginia short line expands - Trains Magazine
- Edward A. Lewis, American Shortline Railway Guide - Third Edition (Kalmbach, 1986) 225