Railroads of Abingdon, Virginia

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Abingdon, Virginia

Abingdon Virginia was settled and founded in the Revolutionary War era of our nation and was one of the earliest towns in this region. The railroad arrived early in the form of the Virginia & Tennessee Railway, completed in 1856, connecting Lynchburg and Bristol VA. This line soon provided direct connections to the major cities in the northeast and many in the south such as Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and New Orleans.

N&W Abingdon Branch – Virginia Creeper

Click here to read about the N&W’s iconic Abingdon Branch, the Virginia Creeper.

Abingdon Stats

  • Coordinates: 36°42′35″N 81°58′32″W
  • Elevation: 2,087 feet above sea level
  • Founded: 1778
  • Population: 8,376 (2020)
  • County: Washington
  • First Railroad: Virginia and Tennessee started operation in 1856. In the years that followed, the V&T became the Atlantic Mississippi & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western, and finally the Norfolk Southern
  • Second Railroad: Abingdon Coal and Iron Railroad which was partially constructed, but never operated. After several owners, the line became operational from Abingdon to Damascus around 1900. Eventually the line became a part of the Norfolk & Western Railway 1919 and extended from Abingdon VA to Todd NC. Today the roadbed exists as the the Virginia Creeper Trail.
  • Highlights: Barter Theater, Martha Washington Inn, and the Virginia Creeper Trail

Virginia & Tennessee Railroad

Click here for information on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad.

Old Saltworks Road by Ron Flanary

Abingdon VA - Norfolk Southern - Photo by Ron Flanary

Narrative and Photo by Ron Flanary

Unfortunately, my expertise in early railroad construction is not sufficient to explain everything about this structure three miles east of the depot in Abingdon, Va., A quick look reveals generations of structural solutions to carry the rails safely over Old Saltworks Road below.

The East Tennessee & Georgia was building northward from Chattanooga as early as 1848. It would take a few more years to reach Knoxville in 1855, but construction continued toward Bristol—on the Tennessee-Virginia state line. The objective was to form an unbroken rail route from New York to Memphis.

As with many early lines, the lack of earth-moving equipment and heavy reliance on hand labor and mule power required many alignment compromises –shallow cuts and low fills–that added curvature and grade. However, Bristol was reached in 1858, and the through route (in conjunction with the Virginia & Tennessee from that point north) became a reality.

This antebellum line was a perpetual work in progress in subsequent years as timber trestles were later replaced by fills, and flimsy bridges upgraded to handle larger locomotives and cars over the years. This structure was one of them.

Look at the cut stone elements of the original bridge—the abutments, and even the span itself. It was sturdy enough for 4-4-0s and wooden cars, but there was no way it would have supported the motive power and cars of such size the line’s designers could have never imagined in the years before the Civil War. Would they have envisioned the hammering hulk of an N&W Y-6a compound 2-8-8-2 in 1858, let alone a Class J 4-8-4 capable of reaching 100 MPH with a passenger train? Hardly. It would appear successor Norfolk & Western solved the strength issue once and for all with a concrete arch built beneath the original span and anchored left and right to the cut stone abutments.

On January 12, 1991, the SD40-2 on the point of this Bristol-bound freight offers little challenge to the structure’s Cooper rating. Since this shot was taken (with Kodachrome 64 on a perfectly gloomy day), train frequency, motive power weight, and car sizes and weights have all gone up even more. This route was nearing death rattle before the creation of Norfolk Southern in 1982. Today, it’s an important freight corridor linking the Northeast and South—the very vision its original proponents, financiers, and constructors planned so many years ago. This arched span near Abingdon has seen it all—and carried it safely across Old Saltworks Road. 

For More Information – Sources and Resources

The following are excellent resources for those of you wanting to explore and learn more about the history and operation of the Appalachian Railroads. These sources of information also serve as reference and historical materials for Appalachian-Railroads.org. Much of the collective railroad history data points on this website are verified across multiple sources.

  • Personal Maps & Memorabilia: Documents, maps, timetables, and track charts
  • Associations, Historical Societies and their Archives
  • Archives of Appalachia: ETSU, Johnson City TN
  • Newspaper Articles: Newspapers.com
  • Magazines/Online: ‘Trains‘, ‘Classic Trains‘
  • Books
    • Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads
    • Appalachian Region
      • Grant: ‘The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road’
      • Graybeal: ‘The Railroads of Johnson City
      • Huddleston: ‘Appalachian Crossings – The Pocahontas Roads‘ and ‘Appalachian Conquest‘
      • Poole: ‘A History of Railroading in Western North Carolina‘
      • Timko and Young: ‘Appalchian Coal Mines and Railroads, Vol. 1, 2, & 3‘
      • Roberts: ‘Sand Patch, Clash of the Titans‘
      • Yanosey: ‘Tidewater Triangle’
    • Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
      • Calloway: ‘Atlantic Coast Line, The Diesel Years‘
      • Griffin: ‘Atlantic Coast Line, The Standard Railroad of the South‘
      • Goolsby: ‘Atlantic Coast Line Passenger Service, The Postwar Years‘
    • Baltimore & Ohio Railway
      • Jacobs: ‘The History of the Baltimore & Ohio’
      • McGuirk: ‘Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the Potomac Valley‘
      • Ori, Salamon and Oroszi: Baltimore & Ohio/Reflections of the Capitol Dome‘ and ‘Baltimore & Ohio/Sunburst Trail to Chicago’
    • C&O Railway/Chessie System
      • Dixon: ‘Chesapeake & Ohio, Superpower to Diesels‘, Chesapeake & Ohio in the Coalfields, ‘C&O Allegheny Subdivision‘, and ‘Chesapeake & Ohio Railway – A Concise History and Fact Book‘, and ‘The Chessie Era’
      • Dorin: ‘The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’
      • Huddleston: ‘Riding the New River Train‘
      • Ori – ‘Chessie System‘
      • Paton: ‘Allegheny with an A’
      • Turner: ‘Chessie’s Road‘
    • Clinchfield Railroad
      • Beach: ‘The Black Mountain Railway’
      • Goforth: ‘Building the Clinchfield‘ and ‘When Steam Ran the Clinchfield‘
      • Helm: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad in the Coal Fields‘
      • Irwin & Stahl: ‘The Last Empire Builder: The Life of George L. Carter‘
      • King: ‘Clinchfield Country‘
      • Marsh: ‘Clinchfield in Color‘
      • Poteat & Taylor: ‘The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century‘
      • Stevens & Peoples: ‘The Clinchfield No. 1 – Tennessee’s Legendary Steam Engine‘
      • Way: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad, the Story of a Trade Route Across the Blue Ridge Mountains‘
    • CSX Railroad
      • Springirth: ‘CSX Transportation Heritage‘
    • ET&WNC: Listed on the website’s ET&WNC pages
    • Interstate Railroad
      • Wolfe & Wolfe: ‘Appalachian Coal Hauler’
      • Wolfe: ‘The Interstate Railroad‘
    • L&N Railroad
      • Castner, Flanary & Dorin: Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Old Reliable‘
      • Flanary: The Louisville & Nashville Cumberland Valley Division
      • Flanary, Oroszi & McKee: ‘The Louisville & Nashville in the Appalachians‘
      • Oroszi & Flanary: ‘Dixie Lines, The Louisville & Nashville Railroad‘
    • NC&StL Railway
      • Prince: ‘Nashville Chattanooga & St Louis Railway‘
    • Norfolk Southern
      • Esposito: ‘Norfolk Southern Railroad’
      • Lindsey: ‘Norfolk Southern 1995 Review‘
    • Norfolk & Western Railway
      • Newton: ‘Rails Remembered, Volumes 1-6
      • Warden: ‘Norfolk & Western: Diesel’s Last Conquest‘ and ‘Norfolk & Western’s Passenger Service’
      • Wolfe, Wilson & Mandelkern: ‘Norfolk & Western’s Clinch Valley Line‘
    • Pennsylvania Railroad
      • Jacobs: ‘The History of the Pennsylvania Railroad‘
    • Seaboard Air Line, Seaboard Coast Line, Seaboard System
      • Calloway and Withers: ‘Seaboard Motive Power‘
      • Carleton: ‘Locomotives of the Seaboard System‘
      • Griffin: ‘Seaboard Coast Line and Family Lines Railroad‘ and ‘All Lines North of Raleigh‘
      • Johnson: ‘Through the Heart of the South‘
    • Southern Railway
      • Davis: The Southern Railway, Road of the Innovators‘
      • Flanary, Lindsey & Oroszi. The Southern Railway‘
      • Webb: ‘The Southern Railway System: An Illustrated History‘
      • Wolfe: ‘Southern Railway Appalachia Division‘
    • Virginian Railway
      • Reisweber: ‘Virginian Rails’
      • Wiley & Wallace: ‘The Virginian Railway Handbook‘
  • Online Article: Flanary: ‘The Quick Service Route, The Clinchfield Railroad‘; Scientific American: ‘The Costliest Railroad in America‘
  • Online Videos: Ken Marsh on Kingsport area railroads and region’s history Video #1 | Video #2:
  • Websites:

3Cs Websites

Appalachian-Railroads.org | Clinchfield.org | Southern-Railroads.org