1950s Operations of the Clinchfield Railroad

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Clinchfield Railroad

Clinchfield Railroad 1950s Operations

Even though the Clinchfield was built and designed to haul coal, by the 1950s, revenue from merchandise almost equaled the revenue from coal. Many railroads experienced lackluster growth after World War II, however, the Clinchfield’s tonnage and revenue growth led the industry. Many of the stats in this page utilize the information in a December 1, 1952 article from Railway Age. 1 To truly appreciate the Clinchfield, reading the article is a must.

Clinchfield Stats for 1952

  • 317 miles
  • Total revenue: 53% Coal, 47% Merchandise
  • Perishable: 2.6% of total revenue (mostly Train #97)
  • From 1944 to 1950, Clinchfield’s operating revenue increased 44%, compared to an industry average of 5%

Passenger Trains

  • Passenger service began in 1909 and ended in 1954
  • The final passenger schedule included 1 train per day, alternating days going north or south, 6 days per week

Manifest Routes and Primary Interchanges

Connections and Interchanges

  • Northern terminus at Elkhorn City: C&O, 550-650 cars interchanged per day
  • Southern terminus at Spartanburg: Southern Railway, Charleston & Western North Carolina (ACL), and Piedmont & Northern, 650 cars per day
  • St. Paul VA: N&W, 250 cars per day
  • Miller Yard VA: Interstate and L&N, 300 cars per day
  • Frisco TN: Southern, 100 cars per day
  • Johnson City TN: Southern and ET&WNC, 75 cars per day
  • Marion NC: Southern, 100 cars per day
  • Bostic NC: Seaboard Air Line, 250 cars per day

Clinchfield’s Primary Manifest Route

Clinchfield Railroad Manifest Freight Route

The primary Clinchfield manifest freight partnership was with the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Atlantic Coast Line, connecting the Mid-West to the Southeast. Other railroads such as the B&O, Seaboard Air Line, Pennsylvania, Nickel Plate, Florida East Coast, and more also participated.

Cities included Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, and Ashland KY to the north…..and Augusta, Charleston, Charlotte, Wilmington, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Florida cities to the south.

  • Clinchfield: Yellow
  • C&O RR: Blue
  • ACL RR: Purple
  • Other RR Partners: Black

The most famous train of the manifest partnership was #97 that made it north to south in less than four days, including fresh fruit and perishables from Florida.

Clinchfield’s 2nd Manifest Route

Even though the Clinchfield primarily linked the mid-west with the southeast with it’s diagonal routing across the Appalachian Mountains, is also competed for east coast merchandise traffic via the Pennsylvania and Norfolk & Western and Hagerstown MD, interchanging at St. Paul VA. Transit time via the N&W/Clinchfield/ACL’s longer route actually competed with the time it took to traverse Potomac Yard, Washington DC, and the northeast corridor (ACL, SAL, RF&P, Pennsylvania).

  • N&W – Purple
  • Pennsylvania RR – Black
  • ACL and RF&P RR – Red
  • Clinchfield – Yellow
  • C&WC (ACL) – Green
Clinchfield Railroad 2nd Manifest Freight Route

Locomotives

  • First diesel: Late December 1948. Three A-B-A sets of F5s, plus an extra F5B.
  • Last steam: April 1954
  • By the end of 1952, the Clinchfield had 59 diesels: 36 F units, and 17 GP road, and 6 yard switchers.
  • 12 4-6-6-4 articulated steam engines were kept for pusher duty southbound between Kingsport to Erwin and Erwin to Altapass. The last steam run was as a pusher from Kingsport to Erwin in April 1954.
  • A new diesel repair shop was constructed ‘thriftfully’ using a shell of an old car shed.

More Clinchfield information will be added to this page and website in the days ahead. Please let me know if you have any questions, see any edits that should be made, or have any content you are willing to share. Would enjoy hearing from you if you have similar interests in the Clinchfield, the region, or model railroading.

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

  1. Railway Age, December 1 1952, This Coal Road Is Also A Speedy Bridge Line ↩︎