THE CLINCH VALLEY DISTRICT
Tunnels, Trestles, and Coal
BY ERIC MILLER/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR W
E ARE TRACKSIDE SOMEWHERE in southwestern Virginia. No, not Roanoke, we’re talking
about the true southwestern Virginia, that somewhat backwoods corner where the Old Dominion meets Ken- tucky and Tennessee, in the rough and rugged Appalachian mountains. In those hills and hollows can be found Norfolk Southern’s twisting, turning, coal-hauling Clinch Valley District. Of particular interest is the extreme western end of the Clinch Valley, the line between Carbo and Norton, Va., which is marked by high, spindly tres- tles and ancient close-clearance tun- nels. While this area is somewhat re- mote, the isolation has been breached by a respectable network of modern four-lane highways. The Clinch Valley, on the other hand, is in many ways far from modern. In fact, it was the first railroad to be constructed into this lit- tle nook of Appalachia.
Into the Wilderness
In 1886, the Norfolk & Western Rail- way began to consider a connection
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with the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road in the vicinity of Cumberland Gap, that famous pass through which Daniel Boone blazed his Wilderness Road, and where the states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee meet at a sin- gle point. The L&N had been building eastward from Corbin, Ky., toward the rich coalfields of Bell and Harlan Coun- ties. However, the possibility of a con- nection with the N&W, creating a through route for traffic from the Mid- west to Tidewater, along with the rise of the boomtown of Middlesboro, Ken- tucky, led the L&N to eschew the Har- lan County line in favor of a route via Cumberland Gap.
The Norfolk & Western and the Louisville & Nashville signed two sepa- rate agreements in 1887 to provide for a connection between the two railroads in the area of Wise County, Va. The N&W began construction west from Bluefield,
W.Va., on June 20, 1887, and the L&N commencing work east from Corbin on July 3, 1888. The Virginia General Assembly es- tablished the Clinch Valley Railroad
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