The Pokey, Crown Jewel of the East

This video shows the traffic and operations at many locations on Norfolk Southern’s Pocahontas District in West Virginia. Often referred to as “The Pokey”, the Pocahontas District extends from Bluefield, West Virginia, to Williamson, a distance of 99 miles. This line is arguably the most scenic and accessible of all the heavy duty mountain main lines in the East. It has a busy helper grade, countless sharp curves along the Elkhorn and Tug Fork Rivers, color position light signals, abandoned coaling towers, and nineteen tunnels, most of which are easily accessible from local roads. This line was the heart of the former Norfolk and Western and reminds us of the Fraser and Thomson River Canyons and Cajon Pass in the West in that you never run out of places to take pictures. This video shows two days and a night of awesome action on “The Pokey” in April of 2003.