CSX DOWNGRADES THE CLINCHFIELD ROUTE
A Death in the Family “E
BY ERIC MILLER AND RON FLANARY/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHORS
VERYTHING WAS GOOD and better than he could have hoped for, better than he ever deserved;
only, whatever it was and however good it was, it wasn’t what you once had been, and had lost, and could never have again, and once in a while, once in a long time, you remembered, and knew how far you were away, and it hit you hard enough, that little while it lasted, to break your heart.” — James Agee, A Death In the Family Say it isn’t so. Alas, it is so. Hard to believe, but the
mighty Clinchfield Railroad route has fallen silent, at least the Clinchfield as we have known and loved and cherished it.
Just over one hundred years ago,
on February 8, 1915, the sharp ring of a spike maul striking steel echoed off Sandy Ridge at the south end of the siding at remote Trammel, Va. The final spike of the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad was driven, and the railroad all the way from connections in Spartanburg, S.C., to the Chesapeake & Ohio’s Big Sandy Division at Elkhorn City, Ky., was open for through traffic. What followed was one of the most distinctive eastern coal operations, becoming the stuff of legend. The Clinchfield’s fame in the world of railroad enthusiasts was far greater than the
line’s relatively diminutive size, only 277 miles in length. The Clinchfield featured 54 tunnels — ten miles of tunnels in total — and over two and a half miles of bridges; most of the line was on curves, and the few straightways were often quite short. The railroad crossed four distinct mountain ranges and reached eight distinct summits, including the famous crest of the Blue Ridge at Altapass, N.C. It was home to thundering 4-6-6-4 Challengers rolling solid trains of citrus reefers bound for the Heartland, dusty black, full throttle SD45-2s, endless long coal drags and fast time freights, and pushers and locals called “Shifters.”
OPPOSITE: For a brief time, Clinchfield’s “final four” F-units were based at Dante, Va., for mine run service. Clinchfield FP7 No. 200 (initially purchased in 1952 to handle the road’s lone passenger train until discontinued in 1954) shows the effects of years of heavy service lugging bituminous and general freight through the Appalachians. RON FLANARY ABOVE: The hills are ablaze with fall color as SD70MAC No. 4552 heads up a loaded southbound coal train at Dante Yard on October 20, 2007. This coal train will pass through the mostly empty yard without a pause. ERIC MILLER
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