Sandy Ridge Tunnel on the Clinchfield Railroad
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Clinchfield Railroad Sandy Ridge Tunnel
Sandy Ridge Mountain and the Breaks of the Big Sandy River were the final geographic challenges for the Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio Railway as they completed their line north to Elkhorn City, Kentucky in 1915.
More content about Sandy Ridge will be added in the future.
Clinchfield’s Sandy Ridge Tunnel Stats
- Coordinates: 36.998465, -82.300958
- Milepost: 32.5 to 33.9
- Elevation: 1,838 feet above sea level
- Length: 7,854 feet, longest on the Clinchfield Railroad
Sandy Ridge Just Ahead by Ron Flanary
Photo and Narrative by Ron Flanary
Backlit on the Clinchfield: October 16, 1980
Diesel exhaust and sand dust envelope a southbound Clinchfield Railroad coal train as it nears the summit of the 34-mile climb from Elkhorn City, Kentucky at the south end of the siding at Trammel, Virginia. Just ahead is the north portal of Sandy Ridge Tunnel–7,854 feet of subterranean passage. It would be great if the engineer could reduce the throttle once inside the bore to decrease the and exhaust gases. However, the summit isn’t reached until the just about 200 feet from the south portal, the struggle against gravity isn’t quite over. The grade inside does ease to .5 percent, however, so the crew members in the cab just have to tough it out a little longer until fresh air can be found at milepost 34, just outside on the Dante end of the passage. It’s little wonder railroaders on such tunnel-infested routes suffered from respiratory ailments.
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
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3Cs Websites
Appalachian-Railroads.org | Clinchfield.org | Southern-Railroads.org