NEWS AND OTHER STUFF WE THOUGHT OF For David
THE UNQUESTIONABLE “DON” of the “Clinchfield Mafia” was, and still is, David W. DeVault of Kingsport, Tenn. He grew up and spent most of his life there, and found his life-long avocation in the Clinchfield Railroad. In fact, there was a trio of notable teenaged followers of the railroad, and besides David, it included Ken Marsh and Steve Patterson. All three names are familiar to anyone who has even the slightest interest in the Clinchfield. Of the three, Ken is the acknowledged authority on the company’s long history. He can engage you with an endless and engaging narrative of facts and stories on the life and times of the CRR. Patterson was slightly younger, but he was equally enamored with the railroad. He departed Kingsport for good in 1965 to head west to begin a career with the Santa Fe. David’s work with the logistics department
of giant Eastman Chemical brought him into direct contact every working day with both the Clinchfield and Southern Railway (which came into the city via a trackage rights contract from Frisco, Tenn.). He kept up with every aspect of the railroad’s operations, and his notes and data were the basis for much of friend and author Steve King’s memorable 1988 book Clinchfield Country. All three were excellent photographers, although Patterson was the most “serious” of that field. His images (and articles) of railroading all over the country have been familiar to readers of the major national periodicals since 1960. Marsh has also been a prolific writer and photographer, although his efforts have trended more to the historical. All are retired and still living, with Steve
in the Denver suburb of Arvada (beside next- door neighbor and friend since boyhood, Joe McMillan) and Ken in Kingsport. Sadly,
62 JANUARY 2016 •
RAILFAN.COM
TOP: The engineer on this southbound at the south end of the yard in Erwin, Tenn., has just run up the units to charge the train line in preparation for a brake test by the car inspectors. After that, the four gray and yellow Fs will begin the assault to the top of the Blue Ridge at Altapass. DAVID DEVAULT PHOTO ABOVE: David DeVault is pictured relaxing in the dome of a privately owned former B&O Strata-Dome leased to CSX for the 1988 Santa Train. RON FLANARY PHOTO
David was stricken with Alzheimer’s in 2007, and as this is written he’s in a nursing home. There was (and still is) a considerable legion of Clinchfield fans all across the nation, but no one would have been more devastated than David DeVault to learn of the line’s
mothballing by CSX. In fact, when editor Steve Barry contacted Eric Miller and I with an appeal for us to take on a tribute for the Clinchfield, our immediate thought was, “We have to mention David.” At least the disease that has robbed him of his memory has spared
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