3Cs Passenger Trains

In the late 1950s, Johnson City’s Union Station witnessed a parade of passenger trains on the CC&C, Southern, and the ET&WNC. In the 2000s, Amtrak still ran several trains a day including the AutoTrain. Below are the Johnson City Union Station Train Bulletins from several eras which provide the operational basis for my n-scale layout.

The1950s/60s portrays two passenger partnerships at Union Station:

Southern, Norfolk & Western, Pennsylvania, Cotton Belt
CC&C, Chesapeake & Ohio, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Baltimore & Ohio, and Florida East Coast

The Primary daily trains included:

CC&C/ACL/FEC: Paradise Breeze: Chicago to Miami
CC&C/C&O/ACL/FEC: Florida Breeze: Chicago/Detroit to Miami
CC&C/B&O/ACL/FEC Florida Limited: Kansas City/St. Louis to Miami
CC&C/SAL Atlanta Local: Kingsport to Atlanta
CC&C Cincinnati Local: Johnson City to Cincinnati
Southern’s Birmingham Special: Birmingham to New York City
Southern’s Pelican: New Orleans to New York City
Southern’s Texan Tennessean: Dallas/Memphis to New York City
Southern’s Music City Express: Washington to Nashville
Southern’s Atlanta Local: Bristol to Atlanta

1950s/1960s Johnson City Union Station Train Bulletin

Easy connections included:

New York City/Washington to Nashville/St. Louis (Birmingham Special and Music City Express)
From Bristol to Florida (Southern Local to Florida Breeze)
From Bristol to Cincinnati (Southern Local to CC&C Local)

Train	No.	City	Arrival	Train	No.	Departure
Southern Birmingham Special		From: New York City, Washington, Roanoke, Bristol To: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham	135AM			1:40AM
Southern Birmingham Special		From: Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville To: Bristol, Roanoke, Washington, New York	149AM			1:54AM
Southern Music City Express		From: Washington, Roanoke, Bristol To: Knoxville, Nashville, St. Louis	4:55AM			5:00 AM
CC&C/SAL Local		From: Kingsport To: Spartanburg, Athens, Atlanta	6:40 AM			6:45 AM
Southern Local		From: Bristol To: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta	6:50AM			6:55AM
CC&C/C&O/ACL/FEC Florida Breeze		From: Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati, Ashland To: Spartanburg, Jacksonville, Miami	7:05AM			7:10AM
CC&C Local		To: Kingsport, Ashland, Cincinnati				8:30AM
Southern Texan Tennessean		From: Dallas, Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville To: Roanoke, Washington, New York	9:14AM			9:19AM
CC&C/B&O/ACL/FEC Florida Limited		From: St. Louis, Cincinnati, Ashland To: Spartanburg, Jacksonville, Miami	9:55AM			10:00AM
Southern Pelican		From: New York City, Washington, Roanoke, Bristol To: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, New Orleans	11:00AM			11:05AM
CC&C/C&O/ACL/FEC Florida Breeze		From: Miami, Jacksonville, Spartanburg To: Kingsport, Ashland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Chicago	11:40AM			1145AM
CC&C/ACL/FEC Paradise Breeze		From: Chicago, Cincinnati, Ashland To: Spartanburg, Jacksonville, Miami	1:55PM			2:00PM
CC&C/B&O/ACL/FEC Florida Limited		From: Miami, Jacksonville, Spartanburg To: Ashland, Cincinnati, St. Louis	4:10PM			4:15PM
CC&C/ACL/FEC Paradise Breeze		From: Miami, Jacksonville, Spartanburg To: Ashland, Cincinnati, Chicago	4:40PM			4:45PM
CC&C Local		From Cincinnati	6:00PM
Southern Texan Tennessean		From: New York, Washington, Roanoke Bristol To: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, Dallas	6:10PM			6:15PM
Southern Pelican		From: New Orleans, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville To: Roanoke, Washington DC, New York	6:25PM			6:30PM
Southern Music City Express		From: St. Louis, Nashville, Knoxville To: Roanoke, Washington, New York	9:55PM			10:00PM
Southern Local		From: Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville To: Bristol	11:20PM			11:25PM
CC&C/SAL Local		From: Atlanta, Athens, Spartanburg To: Kingsport	11:45PM			11:50PM

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