St. Paul Virginia
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St. Paul Virginia
Important Railroad Junction
Researched and Chronicled by Scott Jessee and Sandhi Kozsuch
St. Paul grew and thrived throughout the 1900s due to the mining of coal in the region and as a important junction of two railroads. Even today, you can see trains running through the middle of the town, but much of the coal has been depleted, as has the coal mining activities.
There were several early railroad construction projects in and around St. Paul, including the Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad (3Cs), Ohio River & Charleston, and the Lick Creek & Lake Erie Railroad.
The Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W) was the first railroad to complete and operate its rails in 1890 running east to west. The N&W followed the Clinch River on a portion of its route westward from Roanoke VA to Norton VA.
The Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio Railway arrived in 1909 running north to south. A few years later, the CC&O was completed northward to Elkhorn City Kentucky, creating a coal and manifest freight route that ran from Kentucky to Spartanburg South Carolina.
The two railroads crossed at St. Paul, and interchanged coal and freight utilizing two yards on the edges of town. The N&W maintained a dispatcher in St. Paul for many years to coordinate the junction which saw as many twenty or more trains per day.
The CC&O became the Clinchfield Railroad in 1924, and was later merged into CSX in 1982. The Norfolk & Western is now part of Norfolk Southern Railway.
St. Paul Stats
- Coordinates: 36°54′20″N 82°18′37″W
- Elevation: 1.503 feet above sea level
- Founded: 1911
- Originally known as: Estanoa
- Population: 863 (2020)
- County: Split between Russell and Wise counties
- St. Paul Highlights: St. Paul Railroad Museum, Clinch River, Clinch River Trails, Sugar Hill Trail, Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center
- First Railroad: Norfolk & Western Railway in 1890
- Second Railroad: Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio Railway in 1909 (Clinchfield Railroad)
Ron Flanary’s St. Paul Memories
Narrative and Photo by Ron Flanary
On October 12, 1980, N&W 542 East is dropping downgrade into town with a coal train out of Norton, Va. Check out the diversity in the motive power. The original depot had burned and was replaced by a modular structure. At the time, the N&W operator still controlled the N&W/Clinchfield crossing, just around the curve ahead of this train. The second shot was taken on May 22, 1984. I was standing off the track (of course) and to the right to photograph a northbound empty hopper train on the former Clinchfield (left), and a Norton-bound cab hop on the former N&W. Sometimes you get lucky. I think the NS crew had stopped there for some reason.
Back in the day, St. Paul was an incredibly busy railroad junction. Whenever I was there (on LENOWISCO business usually) it seemed like a train passed on either NS or CSX every 20 minutes or so. You could have set up a folding chair at around this spot with a cooler of beer in the summer and just watch the trains roll. You had to be sure your cans were covered, otherwise the local gumshoes might take exception to the guzzling of adult beverages in public.
Clinchfield.org Sources and Resources
- Personal Maps & Memorabilia – Documents, maps and track charts that I have from the CRR, CC&O, and S&W
- Archives of Appalachia
- Book – Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads
- Book – Goforth: ‘Building the Clinchfield’
- Book – Goforth: ‘When Steam Ran the Clinchfield’
- Book – Graybeal: ‘The Railroads of Johnson City’
- Book – Helm: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad in the Coal Fields’
- Book – Irwin & Stahl: ‘The Last Empire Builder: The Life of George L. Carter’
- Book – King: ‘Clinchfield Country’
- Book – Marsh: ‘Clinchfield in Color’
- Book – Poole: ‘A History of Railroading in Western North Carolina’
- Book – Poteat & Taylor: ‘The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century’
- Book – Stevens & Peoples: ‘The Clinchfield No. 1 – Tennessee’s Legendary Steam Engine’
- Book – Way: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad, the Story of a Trade Route Across the Blue Ridge Mountains’
- Article – Flanary: ‘The Quick Service Route, The Clinchfield Railroad‘
- Article – Flanary: ‘Men Against Mountains, Running Trains on the Clinchfield‘ October 2001
- Video – Ken Marsh on Kingsport area railroads and region’s history Video #1
- Video – Ken Marsh on railroads and region’s history Video #2:
- Articles – ‘Johnson City Comet‘
- Article – Scientific American: ‘The Costliest Railroad in America‘
- Article – Classic Trains: ‘Remembering the Clinchfield Railroad‘
- Article – Railway Age: ‘This Coal Road Is Also A Speedy Bridge Line,’ Sept 1, 1952 edition
- Article – ‘Railway Signaling and Communications‘
- Website – Carolana.com – North Carolina Railroads, South Carolina Railroads
- Website – StateOfFranklin.net which hosts Johnson’s Depot
- Website – RailFanGuides.us for Johnson City and for Erwin
- Website – The Radio Reference Wiki
- Website – SteamLocomotive.com
- Website – Clinchfield Railroad 1982 Track Chart at Multimodayways.org
- Website – Newspapers.com
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3Cs Websites
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