The Clinchfield Railroad, Hauling Those Black Diamonds

The Clinchfield Railroad is one of the less notable fallen flags, most likely due to its very small size, only a tad over 300 miles at its peak! However, the railroad does hold an important place in railroading history and is best remembered as another of the Appalachian coal haulers, lugging millions of tons of black diamonds from the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Along with the railroad’s association with coal it also served as a very effective north-south bridge line for traffic of railroads such as the Southern and Chesapeake & Ohio.

Not only did Carter finish what would become the railroad’s principle main line, he did so in magnificent engineering fashion managing to keep the ruling grade at under 2%! The railroad was so well constructed that it has changed little over the decades and continues to see many CSX freights daily hauling, you guessed it, coal!

The biggest change for the Clinchfield occurred in the mid-1970s when it came under the Family Lines System banner with the L&N, the new Seaboard Coast Line (a merger between the ACL and Seaboard Air Line), and a number of other smaller lines. With this came a new livery applied to all of the railroads (with sub-lettering stenciled under locomotive cabs identifying each company) and gone was the Clinchfield’s familiar black and yellow paint scheme (prior to this the CRR had a gray and yellow livery with black lettering).

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s the Clinchfield Railroad would officially be merged out of existence. When the Family Lines System became the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982 under the CSX Transportation banner with the Chessie System there was little need for so many different company names and the Clinchfield along with its other allied roads were merged out of existence.

Today, the Clinchfield Railroad continues to serve CSX well and one part of the company continues to live on through its successor, its famous Santa Claus Special, originally started during the Christmas of 1943 and has operated every year since. Over the past 60+ years of its annual holiday trek the train has operated over roughly the very same Clinchfield main line since its first year of operation. Today it is co-sponsored by both the Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce and of course, CSX. Since its first year the train was an instant hit and has only become more popular through the years.

Today when the train is scheduled to make its annual journey to deliver presents and goodies to little ones literally thousands of folks along the route will come out to see it and even meet the special guest that now accompanies the train (usually a singer[s] or other famous person). So if you are ever in eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, or western Tennessee along the Clinchfield’s main line during the holiday season in mid-November you may want to keep an eye out for Santa because who knows, he may make a special early appearance by train!

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For an all-time diesel locomotive roster of the Clinchfield Railroad please click here (please note that the below roster excludes units purchased second-hand and rebuilds). Also, for an excellent listing of EMD-built diesel locomotives, including those owned by the CRR please click here. Lastly, please click here to locate preserved Clinchfield diesel locomotives.

The Electro-Motive Corporation/Electro-Motive Division

For a more complete roster of Clinchfield Railroad steam locomotives please click here. Also, for information regarding surviving CRR steam locomotives please click here.

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