Dec 2009
Good Pulls at Pickens
13/12/09 13:49 Filed in: Mines
Pickens, West Virginia is one of the most remote places I have ever been.
I arrived at Pickens by driving east from Webster Springs to Monterville, then north to the Kumbrabow State Forest, then west down a twisting, narrow dirt road in a caravan of coal trucks to Pickens.
Pickens marks the end of a long, isolated branch of the old B&O Railroad. Once a lumber town, at the time of my visit Pickens was an on-again, off-again source of coal traffic. On that particular October day in 1985, they were indeed loading coal.
The trucks that had made the drive through Kombrabow Forest a little more interesting than I cared for were headed to this small transloading facility on the edge of town.
I talked to the train crew when they stopped for beans at Alexander. The conductor was happy to be getting “good pulls out of Pickens”, which I took to mean that 20 or so loads out of this far corner of Randolph County was as much as anyone could hope for.
I arrived at Pickens by driving east from Webster Springs to Monterville, then north to the Kumbrabow State Forest, then west down a twisting, narrow dirt road in a caravan of coal trucks to Pickens.
Pickens marks the end of a long, isolated branch of the old B&O Railroad. Once a lumber town, at the time of my visit Pickens was an on-again, off-again source of coal traffic. On that particular October day in 1985, they were indeed loading coal.
The trucks that had made the drive through Kombrabow Forest a little more interesting than I cared for were headed to this small transloading facility on the edge of town.
I talked to the train crew when they stopped for beans at Alexander. The conductor was happy to be getting “good pulls out of Pickens”, which I took to mean that 20 or so loads out of this far corner of Randolph County was as much as anyone could hope for.