NS (Southern Main) north of Manassas?

No through freights on NS north of Manassas, they all take the B-Line and H-Line west/north bypassing Washington and the North East Corridor. The main road local P97/P98 runs between Alexandria and Lynchburg, with a handful of Piedmont Division locals between Manassas and Alexandria. Rock trains from the Vulcan quarries west of Manassas and Casanova serve plants in the Springfield Industrial park and by Van Dorn Street. Occasionally a unit Ethanol train is ran from the south to the transloading facility in Van Dorn when there are more cars than can be handled on P98.
Not quite as much excitement as back in the old Potomac Yard days, especially with the end of UPS and coal trains very recently, but still some action to keep things interesting.

What happened to UPS and coal trains in the area?  Especially UPS?  I see their trailors often on trains...and Fedex containers.

I wonder if the NS (Southern Main) is endangered as all the traffic heads left at Manassas.  Could they not just run it all on the line from Knoxville in the first place.  I wonder if the Crescent Corridor is only favoring that line vs the Southern Main.

In 2005 UPS traffic from Van Dorn Street Yard in Alexandria was transferred to the expanded Rutherford Intermodal Yard. The majority of containers received at Van Dorn were trucked to/from Baltimore to be put on the train. Van Dorn remained for the most part dormant until an ethanol transloading facility was established in 2008. The old coal-fired Mirant power plant on the Potomac River was closed the end of 2012 and with it the end of coal trains.
The Washington District north of Manassas is in no danger as it hosts 4/6 Amtrak trains daily (another Lynchburg train is in the works as well) and 16 VRE trains. That plus the handful of Piedmont Division locals and rock trains keep freight on the radar. Improvements on the Crescent Corridor will not reroute the Atlanta and Norfolk trains from the Washington District/B-Line.

Thanks for the info.  So does the Crescent Corridor benefit both the old Southern Main through Charlotte and Atlanta..as well as the parallel Knoxville line connecting up through Roanoke to Front Royal?

 

Is that 6 Amtrak's each way?  I was surprised to recently learn that Fredericksburg sees more than 20 Amtrak trains daily.  

 

In other words are both routes equally important to NS?

 

Also, in the 90's didn't NS remove most of the double track between Manassas and Alexandria...yet replace it for the passenger trains?  Or has the double/single track arrangement on the Southern Main remained the same since Southern altered in the late 50's and 60's?  (except in NC where much of the double track was replaced recently)

The Southern began double tracking the Washington District from Alexandria south in 1901. There are several folk stories that the reasons for the double tracking, were that train robbers would board freight trains held in the hole and as they were struggling up Fairfax Hill would hop off with their bounty. While an interesting bit of folklore, the double tracking did increase capacity and efficiency of the line significantly. Since 1904 the entire length of the line between Manassas and CR Tower in Alexandria has remained doubletrack. South of Manassas however, Southern embarked on its CTC project in 1960 and began removing strategic sections of double-track between Orange and Lynchburg. In 1987 NS removed a couple short sections of double-track between Orange and Manassas, with the southern end of double-track being Bristow, a couple miles south of Manassas. In 2002 NS reinstalled about two miles of Track Two between Bristow and Nokesville making that the current end of the double-track. Shortly after work began on a new crew change office at Bristow, as well as a faster connector for the B-Line at Powell. These three projects along with a new siding on the B-Line at Gainesville greatly help train movement through the area, especially in the afternoon VRE rush which essentially limits freights to one track between Powell and Bristow. The next segment of double-tracking will likely be between Nokesville and Calverton, about seven miles long, however is still quite a ways off.

Improvements on the Crescent Corridor were intended to improve both lines and add increased capacity, not to remove trains from either route. Both lines are very busy, and north of Front Royal where the lines converge there are well over twenty trains a day now, with talk of additional intermodals being added with the new terminals opening. Double-tracking the Lurgan Line between Harrisburg and Hagerstown will be the next phase.

There are 4/6 Amtraks total: Lynchburg Regional train, and Crescent run daily, with the Cardinal running Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Interesting.  Much of the Southern Maine below Lynchburg sees 19-30 trains per day depending on where one is standing...but I imagine some of those leave the line at Altavista.  Or heading South...at Charlotte to Rock Hill.

Did the Southern Main (entire portion) have more freight on it in the Southern days...or now under NS?

Mike seems to know about this area and I'm a 'local' but don't know much.  So don't let my reply distract ya'll as I'm kind of curious about this thread myself.  

Also, could a future NS steam excursion such as with 611 or 4501 board at Alexandria? Or would there be complications with CSX? Would it be easier to board at Manassas and have train riders take VRE from DC to Manassas if not driving to Manassas station?

Several years ago, there were several intermodal test trains from Atlanta, GA to Croxton, NJ utilizing the NEC.  I remember seeing one of the test trains, motive was more than clean, firecracker antennae were relocated from top of the cab to side, basically above the head of the engineer.  There were trailers, containers loaded on spine flats, and single containers in well cars.  Due to clearance restrictions, no stacks.  Time savings could have made a difference in service standards; however, that would come at a higher rate plus understand that NS and Amtrak couldn't get together on the fees.  Given the right opportunity, the train could have worked.  Would be nice to see it tried again.