A Great Spring Day of Railfanning in Kenova, West Virginia. 5/23/2023.

Hello everyone! On May 23rd, 2023, I headed back down to Kenova, West Virginia, with my friend and fellow YouTuber Cincy Railfan Productions for what would be our best day of railfanning in Kenova. The weather was superb and the action from both CSX and Norfolk Southern was also superb. Between the weather and the train action it was a near-perfect day to be a railfan at the crossing of the two major coal-lines of the United States.

That said, the morning was a bit slow with a mere five trains in the first few hours. Our first train of the day was a CSX grain train with a Delaware and Hudson hopper car and the only other train for CSX on this fine morning was a CSX loaded coal train. Norfolk Southern action consisted of a two manifest trains (one with an SD70ACu) and a grain train. NS was performing morning maintenance on the historic bridge, but fortunately the maintenance would not hinder the action as the afternoon rolled around.

Once Noon had passed, the action finally started to pick up in such a way it reminisced of the old Norfolk and Western days on the Kenova District. In the next few hours, Cincy Railfan Productions and I caught a total of 12 trains in the afternoon with three "flyovers." A "flyover" is when a Norfolk Southern train passes over a CSX train, and we caught a whooping three cross-overs. The flyover is what makes Kenova so famous; the first was NS intermodal train 273 flying over a westbound coal train, the second was NS manifest train 18W with a loaded CSX train with double-DPU passing underneath, and the third was NS manifest 119 flying over eastbound CSX manifest L210 on its way to Huntington. This was the first time I have seen a flyover in Kenova, let alone three of them in one day.

There were plenty of great catches on the day. CSX had a surprising number of YN2 leaders on its trains and Norfolk Southern featured a newly acquired KCS unit as DPU on one of the afternoon manifest trains as well as a Union Pacific SD70M as the trailing unit on the final train of the day. Kansas City Southern has recently acquired a number of former BNSF units that have been painted with the KCS logo and "KCS" lettering over the BNSF paint. The UP SD70M was by far the most intriguing catch as these units are slowly fading out of the railroad industry, so get them while you can!

After a great afternoon of railfanning at the crossing of Norfolk Southern and CSX, we ventured on down to Huntington to take a look at the CSX "deadline." For those who don't know, the "deadline" in Huntington is home to a number of old-school locomotives slated for rebuilding or storage near the CSX Huntington shops. At the deadline, Cincy Railfan Productions and I caught a pair of ex-Conrail SD60Is, a plethora of Dash 8-40CWs in YN2 paint, and the former spirit unit "Spirit of Maryland." Seeing the deadline tied this day together as the best day of railfanning around Kenova since my first trip there two years ago when I saw a total of 18 trains. This day nearly tied that record with a grand total of 17 trains, and I hope to see the same amount of action the next time I venture down to this sacred railroading town. I will probably be back in Kenova at some point later this year, and at any rate I know it will be another exciting day at the crossing of the old Norfolk and Western mainline and the old Chesapeake and Ohio mainline.

Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!

-N&W475.