Originally the Cowen and Pickens Subdivisions of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the railroad was a part of CSX until it was leased to Watco, which began operating the railroad on March 25, 2005.[1] Watco only held the line for a short time before turning the lease from CSX over to Four Rivers Transportation, now P&L Transportation, on May 15, 2006.[2]
The railroad operates 158 miles of track between Grafton and Cowen.[2] It has one active branch, a portion of the Pickens Subdivision that connects Alexander to the main line at Hampton.[3]
The A&O's main customers are coal mines, although it carries smaller amounts of chemicals and wood.[2] Among the six coal mines it serves is the Sago Mine, site of the Sago Mine disaster in 2006.[3]
Two of these railroads are currently active, the WVC regularly bringing freight trains to the interchange at Tygart and CSX. With the closure of the coal mine serviced by BEEM, A&O no longer serves the line for revenue service.
Locomotive Roster
The A&O railroad uses CSX locomotives to move the empty and loaded cars coal trains to and from customers. They had lease four CEFX EMD SD90MACs (#s 125, 130, 133-134) for helper services in the Burnsville area, but have since been returned to CEFX. Two GP40-3s (#s2105, 2113), two road slugs (#s 2102, 2114) six GMTX EMD GP38-2s (#s 2631, 2634, 2638, 2662, 2665 and 2670), for various switching and local tasks. All fourteen EMD SD50s (#5101-5102, 5104, 5106-5110, 5114-5119) went to other Watco operations.[4]
^ abcA & O Railroad, Appalachian and Ohio Railroad, 2006. Accessed 2007-07-22.
^ abcSystem mapArchived November 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Appalachian and Ohio Railroad, 2006. The Century branch has been inactive for several years. Accessed 2007-07-22.
