A Sunny Yet Strange Day of Railfanning in Kenova, West Virginia, Featuring Five NS Dash 9s!

Hello everyone. On Presidents Day 2024 (Monday, February 19th), Cincy Railfan Productions and I headed down to Kenova, West Virginia, for what would turn into one of the strangest days of railfanning we've ever been on. This day of railfanning was strange thanks to the complete lack of action on CSX, and by lack of action, I mean zero trains. For whatever unknown reason, CSX ran zero trains in the nearly eight hours we were there. The only action from this day of railfanning came from Norfolk Southern on the NS Kenova District. This is the first time (and hopefully the only time) I recall one of the two Class I railroads being completely absent at a major crossing of the two railroads.
With all this being said, Norfolk Southern did keep up a steady flow of traffic throughout the day, albeit NS was a little slower than I had hoped. The day kicked off rather well with westbound intermodal train 277 from Norfolk to Chicago featuring a Dash 9 and Union Pacific AC6000 DPU duet. 277 usually features a pair of DPUs as well as its counterpart 276, but this is the first time I've ever seen a Dash 9 in DPU; pretty cool considering they will be gone in a couple of years. This would be the first of five Dash 9s I would see on the day, and the first AC6000 I have seen since my trip to Marion, Ohio, in March 2023. After 277 passed, the Kenova-to-Ironton, Ohio, local train crossed the bridge heading west featuring a lone SD60E for power. NS has seemingly assigned SD60Es to work long-distance local trains, as I have slowly seen more of them working the smaller local trains on the mainlines. Shortly after, train 18W crossed the bridge heading east.
The middle part of the day consisted of an interesting trio of unit trains, all eastbound. The first was an eastbound loaded coal train with a rear DPU, the second was a grain train featuring the second Dash 9 of the day, and the third was perhaps the most interesting of the three. This eastbound coal train, after crossing the bridge, exited the mainline and entered the NS-CSX joint line that heads to the Port of Kenova. While its rather common to see NS trains using this joint line heading to and from the Port of Kenova, this is the first time Cincy Railfan Productions have ever seen a coal train make the exit off the mainline and enter onto the joint line. The local train also made its return journey in the early afternoon with the SD60E heading long-hood forward back into Kenova yard.
After the local train returned, two more manifest trains came through. 19W rolled on through with the third Dash 9 of the day and 118 passed going east with a trio of AC44C6Ms. These two would be the last trains of the day Cincy Railfan Productions and I would see in Kenova as we made the joint-decision to head to Portsmouth, Ohio, to check out the action there. In Portsmouth, we were fortunate enough to catch intermodal train 29C from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Chicago. 29C is almost always a night train and this was a rare daylight move for this particular train. Even more fascinating, this train had one heck of a lashup; a Dash 9 leader, a rebuild, a second Dash 9, and an SD70M-2 in the consist. The two Dash 9s on this train made the total count of this locomotive five on the day, which is pretty spectacular. The intermodal train was sadly our last train of the day as we were losing daylight pretty quickly in Portsmouth, but it was a pretty sweet way to end the day.
Overall, this was a day of both good and bad. The good was the Dash 9 catches and the AC6000, while the bad was the glaring and obvious absence of CSX action. Hopefully the next time Cincy Railfan Productions and I venture out to Kenova we have a better day of action, one that includes CSX action. As always, thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!
-N&W475.