Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
CSX is the present day Class I that operates over the former Clinchfield Railroad, a strategic north-south rail line over 4 mountain ranges linking the heart of Appalachia in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, to population centers in the Carolinas. It is both the most recently built mainline of this scale in the eastern US and most efficient crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, made possible by the "Clinchfield Loops", an engineering marvel that zig-zags up the mountainside maintaining grades well less than the Southern's famous Old Fort loops and Saluda Grade which both cross the same mountains to the south.
Though traffic on this line was sparse during our visits in late 2019 and early 2020, we chased trains through the tunnels and over bridges across the scenic, remote mountain region.
Copyright Central Penn Rail Productions - 2023
CSX is the present day Class I that operates over the former Clinchfield Railroad, a strategic north-south rail line over 4 mountain ranges linking the heart of Appalachia in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, to population centers in the Carolinas. It is both the most recently built mainline of this scale in the eastern US and most efficient crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, made possible by the "Clinchfield Loops", an engineering marvel that zig-zags up the mountainside maintaining grades well less than the Southern's famous Old Fort loops and Saluda Grade which both cross the same mountains to the south.
Though traffic on this line was sparse during our visits in late 2019 and early 2020, we chased trains through the tunnels and over bridges across the scenic, remote mountain region.
Copyright Central Penn Rail Productions - 2023
![High Hood on the Selinsgrove Industrial Track [4K]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qW8Js5C1v-4/mqdefault.jpg "High Hood on the Selinsgrove Industrial Track [4K]
On June 25, 2018, an odd occurrence allowed us to chase a train on some rare and endangered mileage. K21 departs south out of Northumberland with cars for Herndon Reload; however, they have the added task of rescuing an engine and car off of the Selinsgrove IT—a job normally done at night, which apparently had a minor derailment at the mill in Kreamer on their last run. NS GP38-2 5004 will head down light to the end of the line at Kreamer. The P5 horn on the long hood is so clogged and out of tune that only the #4 chime seems to be sounding. While this isnt the most thrilling video in terms of train action, this is, as far as I know, this is the only existing video documenting this line to date on YouTube, and may be the last time anyone films a train here.
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We first catch the whole train heading south on the Buffalo Line through Sunbury passing the endangered PRR Position Lights at SF on its way to Selinsgrove Junction. After uncoupling from their train on the Susquehanna River bridge, 5004 proceeds by itself down the branch toward the end of the line, first passing depot in Selinsgrove. We then set up by the lumber plant east of Kreamer, then shot 5004 in the middle of town. The mill was busy with trucks so we were not able to get a shot there (not to mention incredibly back lit). The train then heads back east through Kreamer with a much better sounding P5 horn on the the forward hood.
The Selinsgrove Industrial Track was formerly part of the Pennsylvania Railroads Selinsgrove-Lewistown Line, severed in 1956 between Maitland and Kreamer, the eastern portion, along with the the lead to the power plant in Shamokin Dam, are the last few remaining rails in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. The power plant is no longer served by rail after the coal-fired generators were retired for new natural gas ones built adjacent to the old plant. With a feed mill in Kreamer, as well as another mill just east of there, keeping this short stretch of rails polished, it is very likely that someday soon this line will be abandoned and ripped up, leaving another county in Pennsylvania without any trace of railroad activity (there are currently three: Fulton, Clarion, and Forest). With slow speeds and an expensive river crossing to maintain over the Susquehanna River, Norfolk Southern has been pushing to move the service to the eastern shore to their facility in Herndon. Whether it be politics, logistics, or a strong storm or flood wiping out the river crossing, time will tell just how long these few miles of rails will last.
Thanks for watching!
Presented in 4K-30p from the Sony AX-100")
