The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1920-11-19
ONLY HOPE Is F.. ...... !.
IN MAYO TRAIL
BIC SANDY VALLEY, RAIL TRAVEL
CRIPPLED BY LONG TRAINS OF
COAL, NEEDS HIGHWAY.
10y Tom WalIaee)
Special 20 The Courier J ournal.

Paintsville, Ky. Oct 2l.-The burn
ing interest Of business men, bankers
and others OF the counties of the Big
sandy Valley in the projected Mayo
Trail from Ashland to Pound Gap, Va,
with an outlet through Pineville to
Cumberland Gap, IL due partly TO a
transportation situation which really
beggars description.
| have seen some bad passenger ser
vice in Spain and Egypt In Palestine
and Ceylon but not until reached the
valley OF the Big Sandy did find what
must be the worSt passenger service
In the world. The quality is due to
the absolute necessity of giving coal
precedeuce over passengers upon u
single track railroad which follows the
course OF river whose windtngs re-
cali novelist's description OF the Elk
horn In the central counties as cary
ing fantastic arabesIues in the land
scape."
Nobody has n word TO say against
coal being considered first But AS 1t
must be considered first the passen-
gers must travel when they may and
Al what speed can be made.
Coal Trains Many.
Anyone spending "A week in tho Big
Sandy Valley might picture the world
as being supplied with coal mined be-
tween the Virginia line and the mouth
OF Tug River. The impression IL due
to the necessity for spending several
hours a day at the railroad stations
waiting for trains 10 convey you from
one county seat TO another or from
one coal camp to another.
While you walt, blistered by the
blazing sun against the yellow sta
tions, elbowed by "A thronB OF impa-
tient passengers, coal train after coal
train rears through toward Ashland.
ane one locomotive after another pants
upgrade toward the crest OF the Cum
berlands dragging "empties" TO be
loaded with coal along the line. That
there Is cur shortage, or coal shortage.
cannot easily be imagined as these
strings OF steel gondolas pass, pulled
by mountain engines so massive that
they shake the earth and so tall that
they make your neck ache II you stand
alongside them and look up Mt them.
seventy or eighty "gonds" are pulled
down the valley by one engine.
Steel Cars Used.
There In a pretty regular fall which
amounts to perhaps 1000 feet between
Jenkins and Ashland. Going the other
way single engine pulls as many as
100 cars.
The old shallow coal car from which
the coal was shoveled has given place
almost wholly to the deep steel gon-
dola with II dumping device which
makes shoVcling unnecessary when II
is emptied al destination, provided the
facilities OF the consignec are such
that II can be SO emptied.
While these long trains of coal cars
20 down tho valley and the pro-
cession OF empties goes up you wait
at the passenger station Tor tr"in
that never Is on time. 81.
Not once have | seen a train less
than an hour behind schedule. Re-
ports as to how much behind the TRAIN
Is are wholly unreliable. The result
Is that at every important station
many passengers stand around an noun
or 80 waiting for trains which VII
take them maybe twenty or thirty OF
forty miles TO the naxt county seat
maybe to Ashland from Pikeville
maybe TO a station four or five miles
miles down the line.
Express Shipping Growing.
The Increase OF freight rates has
operated to Increase tremendously tho
value of the express business. Pack
ages" UP to 500 or 600 pounds ar,
shipped BY express through the SANDY
Valley and through the valleys OF th'
Kentucky and the Cumberland.
mine employe told me of being sen
aleng with the armature OF mine far
which was being shipped down Ken
tucky River Valley by express to Gin
oinnati His instructions were to til
the man in the baggage car at eaci
point g'twhich the package should b'
transfer ed. In order that 1t might no
be laid over and temporarily lost.
The trip cost around $50. hotel bill
and transportation included, but 1t wal
regarded as the only means OF gettinl
the repairs made quickly.
Another mine man told me of ship
ping some delivery pipe by freigh
from Louisville to McRoberts Sep
tenaber 49, II has not reached Its des
tination.
What Is true of the express an'
freight jam in the valleys of the Ken
tucky sand the Cumberland Is tru
equalIy OF conditions in the Sandy Val
ley AS an impediment to the progress
of passenger trains at every consid
cradle station It is source of con
stAnt irritation to passengers.
A common experience is to walt al
hear and a half for a train whicl
takes another hour and half to carr!
yoL thirty miles, The road is so full
of curves that usually the train ma.
re seen by looking each way out 0
n ear window. Looking ahead you ma!
see frelgn, train bowling along
half mile beyond the locomotive tina
pulls the passenger train. Yo'
are not alarmed about a possible col
iision. a passenger train never catche
up with, anything in the Sandy Valley
Ticket agents do not open their win
dous until few minutes before tn
arrival OF the train. The waiting room
then is packed full of passengers VIII