Norfolk Southern Trains Through Manassas, Virginia, After Potomac Yard's Closure.

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anybody has any information (ie. train numbers) of the various Norfolk Southern trains that continued north through Manassas, Virginia, after the shutdown of Pot Yard. This would be the period of time between 1989 and the modern day. I'm especially interested in the trains that no longer operate over this line including the coal trains that once went to the PEPCo plant in Alexandria and the trailer trains that terminated at Van Dorn Street Yard.

Also, any pictures that could be added to help my understanding would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Nick Jobe
Centreville, VA

I'm sure others can add to this, but here's what I remember -

The yard was shut down in stages and so not everything moved at once - the runthrough trains to Conrail were the first to get shifted over to the Hagerstown gateway in conjunction with them taking traffic off Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. I recall at the time the regular northbound was 154, retaining its longtime number that ran from Southern days, and the southbound was 155 and eventually became numbered 177. 177 often carried the empty hoppers south from PEPCO which came north regularly on train 178. The unit coal trains were 696 and later became symbol 896 before GenOn plant closed. When enough empty hoppers accumulated, NS occasionally ran them as 897.

The D&H interchange train shifted off the Northeast Corridor and was among the last manifest trains to continue through Pot Yard. The southbound was 355 and later became 341 with the northbound number as 342. Eventually, that traffic also shifted to the Hagerstown interchange. I think the 341/342 became the last trains that NS ran to interchange at Pot Yard. Occasionally, there were oddball runthrough trains such as coal trains going to the Morganstown plant (I remember more of those in the days after the closing of Pot Yard) and D&H runthrough coal trains also ran as 741 and 742.