American Explorer🥕🐴's video: Abandoned Train in East Tennessee ALCO RS-3 and Two Passenger Cars

I finally made it to THE abandoned train in East Tennessee! I wanted to get this old train documented before it and the rail line upon which it rests disappear into rail road history. Read below: This train was operated by the New River Scenic Railway until about 2008-10. The engine is an ALCO RS-3 road switcher manufactured by the American Locomotive Company. Only 1,418 were produced from 1950-56. They were equipped with a 1,600 hp twelve cylinder Model 244 diesel engine. This particular engine was originally owned by Southern Railway, number 520. The rail line is the former Tennessee Railroad line that ran from Oneida to Devonia. It was forty-one miles long, and dates back to 1889. There were five rail lines operating in the county at one time with the Tennessee Railroad being the longest running besides the Norfolk Southern which is the only operating rail line in the county left. This line originally served coal mining interests which included transporting coal to a washer plant. In 1902, the company that owned the line, Paint Rock Coal and Coke, was sold to investors from New York. The New River Lumber Company in Cincinnati had opened a mill in Norma to harvest timber in the New River valley. In 1905, New River Lumber Company purchased the rail line from Paint Rock Coal and Coke. When timber resources were depleted, the mill at Norma closed and the line reverted back to serving coal mining in the area. The Tennessee Railroad was purchased by Southern Railway which would become Norfolk Southern in 1973. In 1980, 125 cars a day travelled the route hauling coal from the washer to Oneida. This continued until 2004, and Norfolk Southern abandoned the line soon after. The National Coal Company purchased the line from Norfolk Southern in 2006. The line was not used very much for transporting coal due to rail transportation of coal was becoming impractical. The few trains still running eventually ceased operations completely. In 2008, the New River Scenic Railroad began operation between Huntsville and Oneida. The railroad never became firmly established due to the Great Recession of 2008. National Coal also fell victim the recession as well as the demand for high sulfur coal was declining. National Coal began liquidating its assets about 2009. It sold the rail line to R.J. Corman in 2010 for $3 million. R.J. Corman would not allow the New River Scenic Railroad to resume operations and the New River office near Huntsville burned. R.J. Corman was rumored to have been interested in transporting coal but those plans never came to fruition. Coal mining here never returned to what it had once been and the rail line has been vacant ever since. R.J. Corman filed for abandonment of the rail line with the Federal Surface Transportation Board in February 2020. The notice became effective April 8, 2020. When a rail line is officially abandoned, everything in the area is normally sold for scrap which in this case will likely include the train. Since part of the line has been dismantled, it doesn't appear the train can be towed out, and the location is inaccessible to equipment heavy enough to lift it and transport it out. This is . All explores are 100% real and unscripted with no scenes set up or previously rehearsed and no false or omitted information to mislead the viewer. I do not give out the locations of my explorations or details that might reveal the location unless it’s a well known site. This is to try to preserve the sites from vandalism as much as possible. If you recognize the location in any of my videos, please do not give it away in the comments. Thank you! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanexplorer1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmericanExplor1