2023 Railfanning Guide for CSX and the Clinchfield by Thomas Pittman

The Clinchfield of today is a shadow of its former self, but is far from dead! Kingsport to Johnson City is the most heavily used section, and averages 6 trains every 24 hours. Here’s what to expect on the rails in 2023.

Manifest Freights

The Clinchfield hosts 2 pairs of manifest freight trains daily. M692 (northbound)/M693 (southbound) originates daily out of Russell, KY to the North and Waycross, GA to the South. They service Shelby (KY), Kingsport, Bostic, Spartanburg, and other yards outside of our scope. All carload traffic that originates and terminates along the Clinchfield is handled by these trains that travel the entire length of the line. The other manifest pair is M652 (northbound)/M653 (southbound). These trains are primarily “through freights,” as their primary job is to carry cars between the Russell, KY and Rocky Mount, NC CSX hubs in order to help alleviate congestion along the old C&O mainline between Russell and Richmond (VA). They enter/exit the Clinchfield on the Charlotte Sub at Bostic, and travel the rest of the line north of that point. There is an occasional pickup or setout for these trains, but typically they stay together for their trip over the Clinchfield. The M653s are usually 90%+ loads, while the M652s are usually 90%+ empties, staying true to the age-old Clinchfield operation strategy of “loads south, empties north.” Occasionally, M652s will have to rearrange their train at Erwin in order to get the few loads on the head end for the trip through Boody further north, and complete the task there as to not cause extra congestion at Kingsport.

Photo: Counterparts M693 and M692 meet at Sevier NC

Coal Trains

Coal is no longer king on the Clinchfield, but Coal still moves on its rails. The only originating coal on the Clinchfield is at Alpha’s McClure (VA) Prep Plant. Unit trains of Metallurgical Coal (C209 loads/ R244 mine run from Shelby/ E903 empties) are loaded here for export at a Hampton Roads (VA) pier. Once loaded, these trains run north via Elkhorn City and the Big Sandy Sub before turning East. Duke still receives coal at the Cliffside Steam Station at Brice, albeit sporadic (Cliffside burns both Coal and Natural Gas). In 2023, very little coal was received until August, but the following two months saw 2+ trains (C313, C759, C402) a week. Demand seems to have slown to 1 a week at the time of writing in October. Coal Trains traveling to Terrell (NC)(C758, C406) and Cross (SC)(C304) are split between the Clinchfield and circling around an eastern route via the A-Line or a southern route via Greenwood, SC, depending on where the train originates or where the empty is heading to reload. Something to note, Brice/Terrell trains are sometimes diverted to the other plant as late as 1 hour prior to reaching Bostic. CSX also likes to run some additional stray empty hopper trains via the Clinchfield despite the loaded trains taking a different routing. Eastman (Kingsport) receives 2 or 3 coal trains from CSX a week. All of this coal comes from Eastern Kentucky via the Cumberland Valley/Appalachian District and the same power and train sets are usually assigned to this work for several weeks at a time. Norfolk Southern also delivers coal to Kingsport via trackage rights over the Clinchfield from their Appalachian District Connection at Frisco.

Photo: A Brice bound Coal train works its way through Pigeon Roost

Other Unit Trains

The 2 to 3 unit Ethanol trains that ply the Clinchfield weekly are all received by CSX at Chicago, enter the Clinchfield at Elkhorn City, and exit at Bostic onto the Charlotte Sub. Roughly half of these Ethanols feature at least one foreign road locomotive. Charlotte trains (B627, B651 loads/B628, B650 empties) run once or twice a week, while trains for High Rock (NC) via the Winston Salem Southbound Railway (B635, B667, B669 loads/B636, B668, B670 empties) are about once every two weeks. Scrubber Stone (B435 loads/B484 empties) originates in the Loyall, KY area, travels via the Cumberland Valley (CSX) and the Appalachian District (NS) to Frisco/Kingsport, then south to Brice (Cliffside) via the Clinchfield. Scrubber Stone frequency usually coincides with the level of Coal received with a few extra loads here and there when coal isn’t running heavy. Unit Grain loads/empties destined for/returning from Shelby (NC) pass through about once every week or two (various “G” symbols) when in season. The occasional empty Grain Train comes north from Comer, GA (G704) about once every two weeks. Both through and delivering Maintenance-of-Way trains (bearing “W” symbols) make the occasional trip over the Clinchfield.

Locals

L247 departs Kingsport once daily, Monday through Friday, and works as far south as Erwin and returns. U247 is an “as needed” local in addition to L247 that runs straight to Spruce Pine (to service 3 customers) and back. This train is loosely scheduled for MWF, but runs other days of the week as well if needed. L248 departs Bostic daily and works south as far as Kona to work customers on the extreme south end of the Clinchfield. L248 also goes north on Sundays to service Baxter. L249 departs Bostic nightly to work customers on the Southern/Western End of the Charlotte Sub. There are no on-line customers north of Kingsport (other than McClure) a

CSX 2023: Kingsport and Blue Ridge Subs by Thomas Pittman

Narrative and Photo by Thomas Pittman

The unquestionable hub of the modern day Clinchfield (CSX’s Kingsport and Blue Ridge Subs) is Kingsport, TN. All surviving terminal operations were relocated here from Erwin in 2015, when Erwin was closed as a terminal. Kingsport doesn’t have the locomotive and car service/repair amenities or the yard space that Erwin did, but there’s plenty of activity to observe.  A large portion of traffic that originates/terminates on the Clinchfield comes from long time Clinchfield customer Eastman Chemical, which is directly adjacent to the west of CSX’s Carter Yard trackage in Kingsport. Yard jobs work around the clock (symbolled Y122) to shuffle cars in the CSX yard and to pick up/deliver cars into Eastman’s yards. Eastman contracts out all intraplant switching with the exception of unit coal, of which CSX or NS provide their own crews to dump those loads.

Kingsport also serves as “home base” for all pool crews and is the midway crew change point for all trains traversing the Clinchfield. To the north, all Kingsport Pool crews run between Kingsport and Shelby Yard in Shelbiana, KY. CSX trains coming from/going to CSX’s ex-L&N Cumberland Valley Division via Norfolk Southern’s ex-Southern Appalachian District are handled by Loyall, KY crews. To the south, crews make trips to Bostic (NC) Yard, Duke’s Cliffside Steam Station at Brice (Mooresboro, NC), Spartanburg (SC) Yard, or on one of two locals that work south out of Kingsport.

NS still takes full advantage of their trackage rights over the Clinchfield from their connection at Frisco to the yards at Kingsport/Eastman. NS runs a nightly local between Kingsport and Frisco or Yuma (NS’s yards on their Appalachian District) to handle manifest freight and sometimes Coal. Unit Coal extras are also run on an as needed basis. NS still maintains a small office (what used to be Sheriff) at the South End of Carter Yard, and usually keeps a power set and caboose tied up on the house track when they aren’t on duty.

Thanks to Kris Hazen for help with information regarding frequency of yard work.

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