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CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century by Jerry Taylor & Ray Poteat w/ DJ
The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century by Jerry Taylor and Ray Poteat
Hard Cover with dust jacket
Copyright 2008
170 pages
Contents
Foreword by C. K. Marsh Jr. ? ix In Appreciation ? xi
1. Then and Now ? 3
2. Elkhorn City to Dante ? 11
3. Dante to Erwin (Rock Creek) ? 39
4. Erwin (Rock Creek) to Marion ? 79
5. Marion to Spartanburg ? 117
Epilogue ? 148
Appendixes
A. Primary Coal Train Power ? 152
B. Coal Car Configurations ? 154
C. Real Estate Divestitures ? 161
D. Potpourri ? 165
Bibliography ? 169
George L. Carter, a self-made millionaire from southwest Virginia, assembled the pieces of a transmountain railroad and between 1900 and 1911 oversaw its construction to the highest standards of the day. The business reason was to give economic value to vast coalfields buried in the Appalachian Mountains on both sides of the Virginia-Kentucky state line. Delivering coal he owned to users in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida and at south Atlantic ports by an efficient shortline route would be very profitable. It would also be difficult to duplicate by the existing circuitous rail lines. In economic terms he was giving his coal "time and place utility." From the beginning it was a successful enterprise.
Here, Jerry Taylor and Ray Poteat take a fresh look at the Clinchfield Route, now folded into the gigantic CSX Corporation that blankets the south. This book is a blend of business study and railfan interest. More than 90 percent of current traffic involves coal, and these gentlemen offer an insightful look into where the coal comes from, where it is going, what it is hauled in, and why. Carter's basic idea thrives. Well over 90,000 tons of coal daily flow southward to those markets identified a century ago. The amalgamation of the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway (CC&O) into the CSX offers single railroad service to a dozen or more major coal-fired power plants that provide electricity to large swaths of the territory targeted when the Clinchfield was built. Operations of the old Clinchfield Railroad literally keep the lights on over major areas of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Ray Poteat gained his interest in Clinchfield firsthand. He grew up around the Mike and Mallet steam locomotives that populated Bostic Yard, North Carolina. Starting in 1957, he worked in the Clinchfield and later CSX operating departments for 43 years, assembling extensive records. Some of this treasury is now displayed here. We are all indebted to Ray for his persistent attention to Clinchfield facts and friends. Much of this is shared with a wide circle of the faithful via the Jitterbug, the Carolina Clinchfield Chapter NRHS magazine, which Ray edits.
Jerry Taylor came to know the Clinchfield in a convoluted way. He made his mark as operating vice president of the Long Island Rail Road, a passenger hauler, after rising to the level of general manager at New York Central and Penn Central. He retired on the plains of Indiana. Seeking a mountain getaway, he located a retreat alongside the ex-Clinchfield tracks near Marion, North Carolina, at the base of the Loops. Quickly, he found the operations of CSX in the mountains fascinating. I knew of Jerry only from his detailed writing about coal trains in the Jitterbug. Then one day a friend and I encountered a very agitated gentleman at Poplar, North Carolina, a remote Clinchfield sidetrack along the Toe River. Jerry had lost his car keys. We have maintained an active relationship over the ensuing years.
CC&O/CRR/CSX through the mountains has never been busier. It is a state-of-the-art heavy tonnage rail route splicing the old Chesapeake & Ohio Railway on the north with the old Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line Railroads on the south. Although Clinchfield, as all railroads, has lost some of its personality over the years, the beauty of its geography, exceptional design, and density of trains continues to attract those of steel wheel persuasion to Clinchfield Country.
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