This is what remains of Mudlick Junction, on the N&S. The coordinates are 36.94037, -82.79725. It must have been a busy place at one time. Now, however, the two lines on the left are dead. I think the main line, center, went to around Osaka VA. The line to the far right is live, bringing coal out from a strip mine up past Stonega. The junction is called Mudlick after Mudlick Creek, which flows nearby.
This was taken on a Sunday, but we saw many coal trucks moving in and out of the mine area and there was a N&S loco there with a string of hoppers getting loaded up.
Raus McDill Hanson writes in “Virginia Placenames and Derivations” that Stonega is just “Stone Gap” without the “p”. I’m not getting any love from any of my reference materials or the web on the origin of the name “Osaka”, which I’m told is pronounced “Osakie”, as Stonega is often said as “Stone-agie” (long a, hard g).
Blogging the Railroad Tunnels 