But since the giant steel company closed its area processing plant and mines in the late 1980s, Welch hit the skids. The scenery is littered with dilapidated houses on stilts, old trailer homes with unkempt yards, abandoned shacks, cars with plants sprouting through them. There are not a lot of new cars out here. Bright white Ford Explorers and Expeditions fairly scream railroad management. Dressed in blue jeans and a plaid shirt, he sports a black fedora like his grandfather used to.
More small towns melt past the slow-moving train, shells of their former selves.
During World War II, Keystone was a stopover for troop trains running from the Midwest to Norfolk. Several railroad employees point out a section of town known as Sandy Bottom that had a reputation for, well, entertaining the troops on their stopover. Halfway up the Elkhorn grade, the train slows and stops. The crew on the pusher unit needs to be relieved. Under federal law, a train crew can work for only 12 hours at a stretch.