1950s Operations of the Clinchfield Railroad
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- Related Websites: Appalachian-Railroads.org | Southern-Railroads.org
Clinchfield Railroad 1950s Operations
Even though the Clinchfield was built and designed to haul coal, by the 1950s, revenue from merchandise almost equaled the revenue from coal. Even though many railroads experienced lackluster growth after World War II, the Clinchfield’s tonnage and revenue growth led the industry. Many of the stats in this page utilize the information in a December 1, 1952 article from Railway Age. 1 To truly appreciate the Clinchfield, reading this article is a must.
Clinchfield Stats for 1952
- 317 miles
- Total revenue: 53% Coal, 47% Merchandise
- Perishable: 2.6% of total revenue (mostly Train #97)
- From 1944 to 1950, Clinchfield’s operating revenue increased 44%, compared to an industry average of 5%
Passenger Trains
- Passenger service began in 1909 and ended in 1954
- The final passenger schedule included 1 train per day, alternating days going north or south, 6 days per week
Manifest Routes and Primary Interchanges
Connections and Interchanges
- Northern terminus at Elkhorn City: C&O, 550-650 cars interchanged per day
- Southern terminus at Spartanburg: Southern Railway, Charleston & Western North Carolina (ACL), and Piedmont & Northern, 650 cars per day
- St. Paul VA: N&W, 250 cars per day
- Miller Yard VA: Interstate and L&N, 300 cars per day
- Frisco TN: Southern, 100 cars per day
- Johnson City TN: Southern and ET&WNC, 75 cars per day
- Marion NC: Southern, 100 cars per day
- Bostic NC: Seaboard Air Line, 250 cars per day
Clinchfield’s Primary Manifest Route
The primary Clinchfield manifest freight partnership was with the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Atlantic Coast Line, connecting the Mid-West to the Southeast. Other railroads such as the Seaboard Air Line, Pennsylvania, Nickel Plate, and more also participated.
Cities included Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, and Ashland KY to the north…..and Augusta, Charleston, Charlotte, Wilmington, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Florida cities to the south.
Clinchfield’s 2nd Manifest Route
Even though the Clinchfield primarily linked the mid-west with the southeast with it’s diagonal routing across the Appalachian Mountains, is also competed for east coast merchandise traffic via the Pennsylvania and Norfolk & Western and Hagerstown MD, interchanging at St. Paul VA. Transit time via the N&W/Clinchfield/ACL’s longer route actually competed with the time it took to traverse Potomac Yard, Washington DC, and the northeast corridor (ACL, SAL, RF&P, Pennsylvania).
Locomotives
- First diesel: Late December 1948. Three A-B-A sets of F5s, plus an extra F5B.
- Last steam: April 1954
- By the end of 1952, the Clinchfield had 59 diesels: 36 F units, and 17 GP road, and 6 yard switchers.
- 12 4-6-6-4 articulated steam engines were kept for pusher duty southbound between Kingsport to Erwin and Erwin to Altapass. The last steam run was as a pusher from Kingsport to Erwin in April 1954.
- A new diesel repair shop was constructed ‘thriftfully’ using a shell of an old car shed.
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
Contact Us at Clinchfield.org
Would enjoy hearing from you if you have questions, suggestions, edits, or content that you are willing to share. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have similar interests in the Clinchfield or Model Railroads.
3Cs Websites
Appalachian-Railroads.org | Clinchfield.org | Southern-Railroads.org
- Railway Age, December 1 1952, This Coal Road Is Also A Speedy Bridge Line ↩︎