3Cs Railroad Loops

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3Cs Loops: Crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains

Just like its successor the Clinchfield Railroad, the Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad’s (3Cs) would require a rail line down the front range of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Spruce Pine and Marion NC. In the late 1880’s, the 3Cs had chosen their route using Gillespie Gap to cross the mountain ridge. Their plan was then to utilize the Armstrong Creek drainage basin as a way to loop down the mountain, dropping more than 1,500 feet in elevation. Due to its complexity and high cost of construction, this was one of two primary mountainous segments of the 3Cs that never made it to the construction stage.

Clinchfield Loops

Twenty years later in 1909, the Clinchfield Railroad completed building their version of the Loops, which to this day remains one of the engineering marvels of railroad construction. The Clinchfield took a more easterly route using McKinney Gap and the drainage basins of Pepper Creek, Honeycutt Creek and the North Fork of the Catawba River.

3Cs/Clinchfield Loops Comparison

3Cs Railroad Loops - Clinchfield Railroad Loops

(Map: 3Cs: Purple, Clinchfield: Yellow)

While we have found no plans as to the exact design of the 3Cs Loops, the original surveys of the Clinchfield Railroad did consider Gillespie Gap and Armstrong Creek as one of their options and plotted its alignment. But, a superior option was chosen for the Clinchfield Loops via McKinney Gap with a 1.2% grade, many tunnels and broader curves. The Clinchfield’s Gillespie Gap/Armstrong Creek option would have been a 1.8% grade, with fewer tunnels and tighter curves. Much of construction of the 3Cs in the late 1880s did use these lesser standards, with grades as high as 2%, tight curves, and very few tunnels.

The map shows the general routing of the 3Cs Loops based on Clinchfield’s survey (purple), and the actual Clinchfield Loops (yellow)

3Cs/Clinchfield Loops Interactive Map

For a closer look, click here for a Google Interactive Map showing the comparison of the Clinchfield Loops with how the 3Cs Loops might have been built.

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 content on the website is verified across multiple sources.

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3Cs Websites

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