Appalachia, Virginia | A Heritage of Three Railroads

Home » Appalachian Cities and Towns » Appalachia, Virginia | A Heritage of Three Railroads

Appalachian-Railroads Navigation: Home Page

Small Virginia Town | A Railroad Giant

Appalachia VA

Appalachia, a small town in Wise County, southwestern Virginia emerged as a quintessential Appalachian coal hub in the late 19th century. Founded in 1891 amid the region’s coal boom, the town’s growth was inextricably linked to railroads which facilitated the extraction and transport of bituminous coal from the surrounding mountains. That transformed a remote area into a bustling junction where three railroads converged. Population peaked at around 3,000 in the 1940s, supported by mining and rail jobs, before declining to about 1,400 today amid coal’s downturn.

Appalachia VA

Photo: Today the L&N southward is now the Powell Valley Trail as it crosses over the river and the old US 23.

1935 Map of Appalachia

Map: This 1935 USGS topo map clearly illustrates how Appalachia was a bustling railroad hub with multiple yards, stations, junctions, lines, and even the headquarters of the Interstate Railroad. Today the L&N southward is now the Powell Valley Trail (photo above).

Appalachia VA

Louisville & Nashville, South Atlantic and Ohio, and the Interstate Railroads

The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) extended its Cumberland Valley branch to Appalachia in 1891, providing the first major link to haul coal northward to Corbin, Kentucky, and beyond. Also in 1891, the South Atlantic & Ohio Railway (SA&O) reached Appalachia from Bristol, Tennessee, via Moccasin Gap and Natural Tunnel, focusing on coal transport southward. Renamed the Virginia & Southwestern Railway (V&SW) in 1899, it was acquired by Southern Railway in 1906 and integrated as a division by 1916. The Interstate Railroad (INT), incorporated in 1896, connected Appalachia to Andover and Norton by the early 1900s, serving as an 88-mile coal-hauling short line with yards and shops in the town. These lines converged at Appalachia, creating a vital interchange for coal shipments, with facilities including roundhouses, coaling towers, and yards that employed hundreds. Southern acquired INT in 1961, consolidating operations.

Appalachia VA

Today: CSX and Norfolk Southern

Today, successors CSX Transportation (former L&N) and Norfolk Southern (NS, from Southern and INT) operate in Appalachia, though activity has waned with coal’s decline. CSX runs the former L&N Cumberland Valley Subdivision, handling occasional freight like aggregates. NS operates the Appalachia District (ex-V&SW/INT), with active tracks through Natural Tunnel for limited coal and general merchandise, but many branches are abandoned or converted to trails like the Powell River and Guest River Gorge Trails. Historic sites like the restored 1926 depot (now a theater), preserve the legacy of Appalachia’s railroads.

Appalachia VA

Photo: Cabooses are still a common sight in Appalachia VA

My Hometown, Appalachia VA by Ron Flanary

Appalachia VA

My Hometown–Appalachia, Virginia: June 9, 1966:

Ah yes–summer! This everyday view looking west along the railroad thoroughfare behind the central business district reveals an L&N southbound (by railroad direction) through freight making a set-off of interchange to the Southern. The crew left its train in the distance, just past the Inman grade crossing to avoid blocking that crossing. The three units will go back to retrieve the balance of the train, and then ease across Pine Street and Kilbourne Avenue before making a run for the hill to Norton. On the right, an Interstate Railroad crew is making an exit from the passing track after clearing up for an inbound Southern train heading to Andover. The head brakeman has just lined the switch. Alco C628s to the left and back-to-back F-units to the right. Just everyday sights in 1966. No more.

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:

For More Information

  • American-Rails.com
  • HawkinsRails.net – A wonderful multi-generational family railroad blog
  • VirginiaPlaces.org – Railroad History of Virginia

3Cs Websites

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