Spartanburg Railroads

Spartanburg South Carolina: The Hub City

It’s not often a city becomes synonymous with its multiple rail lines and their configuration as a rail hub. Spartanburg, the ‘Hub City,’ is just that place.

Six railroads were built between 1859 and 1913, helping to serve and grow the textile industry which thrived here for many decades. The Southern Railway and the Clinchfield Railroad brought additional opportunities for the city due to its proximity on the perimeter of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

First Railroad: Spartanburg Union & Columbia in 1859. The line ran southward to Columbia SC and is now part Norfolk Southern Railway.
Second Railroad: Atlanta & Richmond Airline Railway in 1873. The railroad was the city’s busiest, becoming the mainline for the Southern Railway (SOU), and finally the Norfolk Southern (NS). North eastward the line runs to Washington DC, and southward to Atlanta GA and beyond. Two Amtrak passenger trains still run each day.
Third Railroad: Spartanburg & Asheville in 1885. The railroad ran between its two namesake cities, up the treacherous Saluda Grade which reached an incline of 4.7%. Northern segments of this rail line have been closed and will be used for a rails-to-trails greenway.
Fourth Railroad: Charleston & Western Carolina Railway in 1885. The railroad for many years was a key link southward to Augusta GA and the state of Florida. It was an operating unit of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and is now part of CSX.

Fifth Railroad: Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio Railway (CC&O) was completed in 1909 from Dante VA to Spartanburg SC. In 1915, the line was extended to Elkhorn City KY where it connected with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. In 1924, its ownership and name was changed to the Clinchfield Railroad (CRR), and is now part of CSX.
Sixth Railroad: Piedmont & Northern Railway in 1913. Segment of the P&N are now part of CSX, the Greenville & Western, and the Charlotte Western

Southern Railway Passenger Train at Spartanburg Station, Donald R. Hensley Collection

Spartanburg Stats

Coordinates: 34°56′48″N 81°55′39″W
Elevation: 737 feet above sea level
Named For: Spartan Regiment, an early revolutionary war military group.
Nickname: Hub City, due to the various rail lines radiating in multiple directions
Founded: 1831
Population: 38,732 (2020)
County: Spartanburg
Highlights: Once a textile center, Spartanburg is known for Converse University, Wofford College, and Chapman Cultural Center

Spartanburg Tunnel

Click here to read about the Clinchfield/CSX Spartanburg Tunnel/

Clinchfield’s Spartanburg Yard

Click here for more information on Clinchfield’s Spartanburg Yard

Additional Information

Click here to read more about the Hub City and the Hub City Railroad Museum

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:
- American-Rails.com
- AppalachianRailroadModeling.com
- Carolana.com – North Carolina Railroads, South Carolina Railroads
- Diesel Shop
- HawkinsRails.net
- Multimodalways
- StateOfFranklin.net which hosts Johnson’s Depot
- RailFanGuides.us for Johnson City and for Erwin
- SteamLocomotive.com
- VirginiaPlaces.org – Railroad History of Virginia
- Wikipedia.org
- WvncRails.org – North Carolina and West Virginia Railroads

3Cs Websites

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