For the second time in less than a decade, the former mainline of the Clinchfield Railroad has fallen silent. This time the culprit is mother nature, not human ineptitude. The Tennessee and Carolina hollers and river valleys that helped link Spartanburg with Elkhorn City have been impacted by one of the worst inland flash floods in a generation, triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Helene merging with a mid-latitude low pressure system. With the railroad physically cut and basically unrecognizable between Erwin, TN and Ashford, NC, bulk traffic, coal, and time freights have again been rerouted by CSX to other territory as the long and tedious process of recovery and clean-up begins.

On a brighter, drier day just under a year ago, southbound time freight M693-05 rattles the stained glass of the Union Baptist Church in Dante, Virginia as it heads down the Clinchfield toward Kingsport.

Wishing the best for Flickr friends and all impacted residents of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

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This shot would’ve been better if the Grafton monster was in it.

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Today's bonus rerun OARCB (old ass rivet counter boomer) mundane high sun, silver box, gravel pile, leaning, wirey, mindless wedgie! Having finished my 92 vacation let's fill in a few days with a few shots from the good ol days.

So let's return now to those thrilling days of yesteryear and continue my never ending fetish to capture a train in a perfect NGPN (National Geographic Pristine Nature) setting, 1974 version.

Today the Wayback Machine is set to my first trip shooting the Rio Grande and Utah Ry, June 19, 1974, at Utah Ry Junction, Utah and the Utah Ry's Martin Turn.

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Westbound UP INPOA rounds underneath their train at the bottom of Williams Loop, about to pop through the short tunnel under the track and split the searchlight signals.

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A pair of Alaska SD70MACs lead barge traffic from Whittier to Anchorage.

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