Johnson City High Line on the Clinchfield Railroad

Home » Johnson City High Line on the Clinchfield Railroad
Clinchfield Railroad

Clinchfield Railroad’s Johnson City High Line

Researched and Chronicled by Scott Jessee and Sandhi Kozsuch

In 1902, George L. Carter began making plans for buying existing railroads with the goal of creating a new much larger railroad that could transport his coal holdings in Southwest Virginia to a port on the east coast. This monumental undertaking involved buying defunct or financially challenged railroads in the region, and then constructing upgrades to those lines. He would also need to build new rail lines where there were no railroads to buy.

In the Johnson City area, he bought in foreclosure the Ohio River & Charleston Railway, which was originally the 3Cs, the Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad.

Clinchfield’s Initial Choice: A Route Through Johnson City

At first, Carter planned on using the existing roadbed of the OR&C/3Cs from Dante VA to Huntdale NC, through Johnson City TN. It was an antiquated line with steep grades and tight curves, making it longer and more of a challenge to operate. You can see remnants of that roadbed between Kingsport and Johnson City along the South Holston River, and through Cash Hollow northeast of Johnson City.

Clinchfield’s New Investor: Blair & Company

After Carter ran out of cash in 1905, he found a new investor, James A. Blair, Founder and Chairman of Blair & Company, one of New York City’s leading investment banks. Blair and Carter agreed to build a better railroad with minimal grades and fewer curves. The idea was to spend more money early in construction, and then make more profits over the long term with reduced operating expenses. Soon after in 1905, Carter hired M.J. Caples from the Norfolk & Western to design and build the railroad to a higher engineering standard.

Bypassing Johnson City

Caples’ new surveys showed that the best routes for building a top-quality railroad bypassed Johnson City. Additionally, Carter had been having challenges buying land in Johnson City, which he planned to use for the new railroad’s headquarters and primary yards and shops. At this point, there were three options:

  • Bypass Johnson City
  • Build through the middle Johnson City (paying higher prices for land, or having limited land choices)
  • Or to have two routes, a mainline bypass for coal trains and manifest freights, and a downtown loop for passenger trains and local freights.

Thus, it was decided to bypass Johnson City, and build the yards and shops in Erwin TN. Construction began on the line which now runs behind the current East Tennessee State University.

Johnson City’s Change of Heart

With this decision, Johnson City came back to the negotiating table, and offered Carter new terms and inducements to run the railroad through the city. Carter accepted, and construction on the bypass on what is now known as the Johnson City High Line stopped. A new route was taken through the middle of the city, using a portion of the Ohio River & Charleston Railway roadbed.

Johnson City Highline and Downtown Loop Interactive Map

Clinchfield Railroad through Johnson City TN

As outlined above, one option Carter had was to have two routes in Johnson City, the mainline around the city, and a downtown loop through the city. Eventually, both were built and used, but not concurrently as planned.

The blue line is the route that served as the Clinchfield mainline from 1909 to 1970, and after that the Johnson City Spur. The black line is the High Line and current CRR/CSX mainline.

Click here for a full screen view of the entire Clinchfield Railroad Johnson City Highline and the Downtown Loop/Johnson City Spur.

Rebirth and Completion of the Highline

For decades, the Clinchfield was growing tired of operating the line through Johnson City with its excessive number of crossings of city streets. Plus, due to it’s higher grades, it required more locomotives and more expenses to move trains on the downtown route. As early as 1922, the Clinchfield knew that finishing the High Line was worth the investment, but the construction might have been delayed for several reasons including the leasing of the Clinchfield by the ACL and L&N in 1924, the depression, and the World Wars.

So, sixty years later in 1969, the decision was made to restart construction and complete the high line, diverting the mainline around Johnson City. It shaved off over two miles of distance on the Clinchfield mainline. It also reduced the ruling grade to .5%. On that old mainline, grades south of Johnson City reached 1.1%, requiring a helper district to push the trains up the hill to Unicoi.

Parts of the old Clinchfield mainline now serve as the railroad’s Johnson City Spur. Additionally, two miles of the rails were removed to make way for the the current State of Franklin Parkway and commercial development.

Opening and Initial Operation of the High Line

Once it was completed in October of 1970, the Clinchfield’s Johnson City High Line took over three months to reach full speed and operation. Initially, southbound trains used the High Line, and northbound trains used the old line through the middle of the city. By July 1971, the old downtown mainline was officially out of service. The Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society archives a portion of the Clinchfield Railroad Bulletins that were issued to all Clinchfield operational personnel. Using these bulletins, Scott Jessee recreated the months before and after the opening of the High Line, as the new route came up to full speed, and as the old main line was slowly decommissioned. By following Scott’s overview of the bulletins, you can relive those 12 months just as the CRR’s crews did. Click here for the full article.

Clinchfield’s #1 on the Johnson City High Line by Ron Flanary

Photo and Narrative by Ron Flanary

Performing flawlessly on her last solo excursion, Clinchfield Ten-Wheeler No. 1 works upgrade along the “High Line” to the west of East Tennessee State University’s campus in Johnson City, Tenn. in June 1978. Our local club–the East Tennessee Chapter of the NRHS–had many excellent adventures with this locomotive those many years ago. For this run, I got off going southbound at Kingsport, Tenn. and chased (along with others) to Erwin. She now rests inside the restored roundhouse at the B&O Museum in Baltimore.

Clinchfield Railroad Johnson City High Line - 1978 - Photo by Ron Flanary

Johnson City High Line Stats provided by Bob Harvey

Narrative by Scott Jessee.

Clinchfield Railroad’s Johnson City High Line route had been considered several times, but did not come to fruition until the T. D. Moore reign. George L. Carter’s South & Western planned to utilize the high line route but Johnson City business owners and politicians were able to sway the railroad back to “downtown” Johnson City.

James Goforth’s Building the Clinchfield reported on a 1922 feasibility study for the high line. This plan would maintain downtown trackage for local and passenger trains while through freights utilized the high line. This study did not become reality as it appears the project was put on hold due to the pending ACL and L&N lease.

The Clinchfield Railroad started construction on the High Line in September 1969 and was opened for service on October 16, 1970. While looking through Robert Harvey’s railroad files, I came across the following “High Line” statistics the railroad had compiled.

These stats reveal how efficient the new route was instead of just the general observations of it is a quicker route with less curves and grades. The high line not only saved the railroad maintenance costs but eliminated numerous grade crossings in downtown Johnson City along with the Kingsport to Unicoi pusher district.

Clinchfield Railroad Johnson City High Line Stats

​High Line Memories by Ron Flanary

Clinchfield Railroad Johnson City High Line - 1972 - Photo by Ron Flanary

Photo and Narrative by Ron Flanary

What appears to be a southbound Clinchfield Miller Yard (VA) turn (with L&N traffic) is topping the long grade from Kingsport to Unicoi, TN in this scene from March 1972. This was the south end of the new “high line” grade reduction project through Johnson City, TN. A remnant of the old line was still in place then, veering off to the right. The GE U36Cs were purchased for pool coal train service with the L&N, but they were not popular with either engine crews or the Erwin mechanical department. All seven of them (3600-3606) were traded to SCL for a like number of SD45s

My High Line Memories

Narrative by Sandhi Kozsuch

As a kid growing up on the ETSU campus, I would spend some afternoons exploring the remnants of the initial 1907 construction of the Clinchfield/CC&O. There were unexplainable earth fills behind the University, creating embankments to climb. There were also water culverts through the embankments that almost look liked caves.

Additionally, there were a matching set of bridge abutments with the date 1907 that almost formed an ‘entrance way’ or gate to Southwest Avenue. No bridge, just abutments. Before the 1969 construction proceeded, those abutments were destroyed to make way for new ones.

My greatest memory of all was the constant parade of trains through downtown Johnson City, causing traffic jams almost hourly. For everyone else but us railfans, those many at-grade crossings and the hourly trains and traffic congestion were most likely a bad memory.

Clinchfield.org Sources and Resources

The following are excellent resources for those of you wanting to explore and learn more about the Clinchfield Railroad. These sources of information also serve as reference and historical materials for Clinchfield.org. Much of the content on the website is verified across multiple sources.

Clinchfield Railroad

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