In 2005, what was then Pinsly took a 25-year operational lease of CSXT's West Coast Sub from Newberry down to the Red Level plant at Crystal River. Back then, it was a steady flow of coal trains, almost guaranteed to have one at the plant, one coming south from Baldwin and one somewhere inbetween at any given time of any given day. Which harkens back to my childhood, visiting the nearby Rainbow Springs and seeing what seemed like a train every 45 minutes or so in the early 80's. In 2022, the West Coast Sub is not the main artery it once was, that baton passed to the adjacent S-Line, Regional Rail operates the former Pinsly lines and coal traffic is minimal....it's down to a "seasonal" operation, like grain almost, with 20 trains scheduled from July to December. It took a great deal of luck for #4568 to end up on the head end today. It was leading an OUC coal train out of Indiana, then had a CSX motor added on top....plus the Red Level train added on the read, total of 200 cars into Baldwin with two CSX motors between the sets acting as DPU. Instead of simply pulling the two trains apart, they completely rearranged the power, taking the lead motor off the train and removing the 4568/941 to add to what was the second motor of C052, taking that lead motor for the OUC train DPU. As I have said before, 95% of this photography thing is pure luck.
