Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad

Based on two maps from the Library of Congress, the Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad (N&C) appears to be a primary link in a proposed railway from the Ohio River to the Atlantic Ocean cutting across the coal fields of Kentucky and Southwest Virginia. The Maps are dated 1882 and 1883.

The proposed 1882 routing would have mirrored the northern section of what was being planned by the Charleston Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad (3Cs) through the Breaks to Paintsville KY. However, at the south end of the Breaks and then again at Emory VA, the C&N would have taken an easterly turn, heading to the tidewater ports rather than to the ports of Charleston SC or Wilmington NC.

In 1883, the N&C changed their plan, with the ports of North Carolina and South Carolina being a higher priority. This later map and plan is titled ‘The Consolidated Southern Railway,’ which was to be a partnership between the Eastern Kentucky Railroad, the N&C, and the Chester & Lenoir Railroad. It also appears to be using some of the routing of the ET&WNC.

The N&C never advanced to the construction phase and only existed as discussions and proposed maps.

Some of the proposed N&C routing exists today as CSX, and before that, the Clinchfield Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

Please let us know if you have additional information on this railroad so we can chronicle its history.

Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad Map – 1882

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad Map (The Consolidated Southern Railway) – 1883

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Norfolk & Cincinnati Interactive Railroad Map

Click this link to see a Google interactive map for the initial routing of the Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad.

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