SerpApi.Org
BULLS GAP, Tenn. - Norfolk Southern has revived operations on the 17-mile BL-Line in Tennessee, operating a coal train on the route just days after announcing it would be reopened after a nearly eight-year hiatus.
Loaded coal train 744 was the first regularly scheduled train on the line between Bulls Gap and White Pine, Tenn., since approximately 2018. It was hauling approximately 110 cars with coal from Shire Oaks, Pa., to Duke Energy's Marshall Steam Station, located along Lake Norman in North Carolina's Catawba County. Trains bound for the Marshall facility are frequently referred to as "Catawba coal trains."
The train was led by Norfolk Southern AC44C6M locomotive No. 4009, one of two units on the point along with three distributed power units at the rear. Its initial crew went on duty about 7 a.m. Monday in Andover, Va., and took the train into Tennessee. After a stop about 2:30 p.m. at Bulls Gap to swap crews, the train headed southwest on the BL-Line, then joined the S-Line in White Pine. It continued into North Carolina and arrived in Asheville during the overnight hours.
On Tuesday, July 21, train 744 departed the yard in Asheville about 7:30 a.m. Delayed after breaking in two because of a broken knuckle at Ridgecrest, at the Eastern Continental Divide, it resumed its trip about 11:30 a.m. and became the first eastbound revenue run down the Old Fort Loops since Hurricane Helene devastated the region and railroad in 2024. Its 1,100-foot descent on the Loops required 13 miles of track to cover a straight-line distance of 3 miles. The first westbound revenue train traveled the route in April [see "First Norfolk Southern freight train …," Trains.com, April 19, 2026].
The train was recrewed again at Oyama Yard in Hickory before arriving at the Marshall Steam Station after 8 p.m.
Prior to the return to this pre-2018 routing, the Catawba coal trains traveled from Pennsylvania to Roanoke, Va., and then south via Greensboro and Salisbury, N.C., to join the S-Line to reach the Marshall Steam Station.
The railroad had announced plans to reopen the line earlier this month, and says the BL-Line will carry about five trains per week, primarily coal trains. After eight years of inactivity, the railroad is asking drivers, pedestrians, and community members to stay alert at crossings and near railroad tracks, and to always expect a train.
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