Скачать или смотреть January 2026 Railfanning in Kenova, West Virginia; First Railfanning Adventure of the New Year.

Hello everyone. On Friday, January 2nd, Cincy Railfan Productions journeyed out to our favorite hotspot in the Ohio River Valley, Kenova, West Virginia. This was our first visit to Kenova since April 2025, and this day of action was pretty solid overall despite a couple of slow periods. In total, we would see 15 trains in the Kenova area, which makes this day of railfanning one of the busier ones we have had here.

The day got off to a pretty fast stop with a meet on the CSX line. A loaded eastbound coal train met a westbound grain train which featured a pair of Family Lines Covered Hoppers. Interesting enough, in all of our railfanning adventures here in Kenova, this was our first-ever meet between CSX trains. We had seen a meet between a CSX coal train and a light-power move before, but never between two full trains. Norfolk Southern would soon follow up this meet with a trio of westbound trains. The first westbound was the daily ethanol train over the Kenova District, the second was the daily local train from Kenova Yard to Portsmouth Yard in Portsmouth, Ohio, and the third was a westbound coal train. Due to congestion on the mainline heading towards Portsmouth, the coal train made a rare stop on the bridge to allow for traffic to clear up. While the coal train waited on the bridge, eastbound intermodal train 272 rolled on through. 272 is one of the usual daytime intermodal trains here in Kenova, and one of the most consistent trains on the NS Kenova District. The coal train continue to head west as soon as 272 cleared the bridge.

For the middle portion of the day, traffic would slow down a bit from the morning rush. While traffic did not fully stop, we only had three trains and a light power move between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. All were Norfolk Southern, and CSX surprisingly had no trains during this portion of the day. The first NS train was westbound intermodal 273, the counterpart to 272. Like 272, 273 is a rather consistent train on the Kenova District and typically rolls through in the early afternoon. Today's 273 had a special treat today with a Dash 9 acting as mid-train DPU. Norfolk Southern Dash 9's are becoming increasingly rare over the past few months as NS is aggressively rebuilding these legendary locomotives into AC44C6Ms. Manifest train 118 rolled on through about 40 minutes later, oddly enough 118 was the only NS manifest train on the day. The final train of this early afternoon trio (aside from the local returning to Kenova Yard) was intermodal train 29C to Chicago.

After 2:30, we finally got our next CSX train with a YN2 leading a rather long westbound coal train. This was finally our first CSX train in over six hours, and it would kick off another busy period of action. Norfolk Southern would send a quartet of trains in the next hour and a half. Two of the trains were local trains; the first was the local exchange train working the CSX-NS exchange tracks next to the CSX line, and the other local was the Williamson local with the same SD70ACe that passed through earlier. The other two trains were a pair of eastbound mainline trains, first eastbound intermodal 28N followed by an eastbound coal train as one of the local trains worked on the tracks below. Like 272 and 273, 28N is one of the most consistent trains and perhaps the most consistent train here in Kenova, as it always arrives in the later afternoon. The final train of the day was quite a surprise with CSX manifest L210 heading east through Ashland as we began heading west. Cincy Railfan Productions and I had to film this CSX train from a grade crossing along US 23 as we did not see it until the last minute and did not have time to properly set up our equipment. As a result, we filmed from inside of the car. Nevertheless, we gave it our best effort like all the other trains from today.

Overall, it was a rather solid day of railfanning here in Kenova. 15 trains is one of the better days and is certainly not much to complain about, though the action could have been better in the middle portion of the day. As always, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!

-N&W475.