Breaking the Mountain Barrier

After the Civil War, many railroad efforts were undertaken to build into, and across the Appalachian Mountains. Coal, timber, and iron were the incentives. Many of these antebellum railroad initiatives were unsuccessful, and millions of dollars were lost. However, by 1915, the following five additional railroads had succeeded at bridging the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River through the mountains.

Photo of N&W #1218 by Roger Puta

C&O, Southern, N&W, and L&N

1873: The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway from Richmond, through Charlottesville, to Huntington WV. Goods could be placed on boats at Richmond to reach the Atlantic. By 1881, the C&O had completed a line to Newport News VA, now a large Atlantic Ocean port.

1880: Cincinnati Southern from Cincinnati to Chattanooga TN. Near Knoxville TN, and at Chattanooga, connections with affiliated railroads were made for freight headed to the Atlantic ports. In 1893, the Cincinnati Southern and others were merged to create the Southern Railway, making the Ohio River to the Atlantic Ocean a seamless rail network.

1892: Norfolk & Western Railway from Norfolk VA, through Petersburg and Roanoke, to Kenova WV.

1902: Louisville & Nashville Railroad from Cincinnati OH and Louisville KY, through Knoxville TN to Atlanta. Connections with partner railroads would move the freight to various Atlantic ports.

1884 Map of Eastern U.S. Railroads

A thumbnail of a 1884 Muir Way map shows both the lack of Appalachian railroads and the abundance of formidable mountains. At this point, the Cincinnati New Orleans & Texas Pacific and the Chesapeake & Ohio had finished their rail lines across the mountains.

3Cs Railroad – Crossing at the Widest Point

Crossing the Appalachians at their widest might look like a questionable venture. However, this routing also had a large coal reserve and was a direct route from the Mid-West to the Southeast. The Charleston, Cincinnati, & Chicago Railroad, the 3Cs, created a grand vision that eventually succeeded. The railroad started construction in 1886. Johnson City TN served as the company’s headquarters with much speculation that the city would become a railroad boomtown. Unfortunately, the 3Cs could not complete their vision and was sold in foreclosure due to an economic downturn in 1893. Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad – 3Cs

Clinchfield Railroad – Eventual Success

Photo courtesy of Dan Robie wvncrails.org

Clinchfield Railroad Santa Train - Dan Robie

Thankfully, that early vision was completed by the Clinchfield Railroad and George L. Carter in the early 1900s. His effort bridged the Southeast and the Midwest with a well-designed railroad to efficiently transport natural resources and goods across the mountainous region. Hauling coal efficiently was not its only claim to fame. With connections with the C&O and the Atlantic Coast Line, and with cooperation between the three, a successful and very profitable North-to-South manifest freight rail line was inaugurated in 1915. Click here for information about the Clinchfield at Clinchfield.org.

Appalachian Crossings by 1915

It took an additional 55 years, but by 1915, five more railroads, a total of 7 had crossed the Appalachian Mountains at 90-degrees and made the connection between the Ohio River and the Atlantic Ocean: The B&O, C&O, Clinchfield, L&N, N&W, NC&StL, and Southern.

Click here for a Google interactive map to see the railroads and their routes as they crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains (Blue line) and the Appalachian Plateau (Yellow line)

Click here for more information on the best potential routes across the Appalachian Mountains by using rivers and gaps. Click here to see more details on the railroads that tried, that failed, and the seven that succeeded in bridging the Ohio River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Next: The Appalachian Region Thrives

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