History and Operations of the Clinchfield Railroad

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This History of the Clinchfield RR is compiled from many sources, and may not be in chronological order. There is a link at the end of each section that will take you to our bibliography, and the source material for that entry. Please refer to the original source whenever possible. Our goal here is to provide an overview of materials, and whet your appetite for more!

A railroad running North and South across the Blue Ridge Mountains in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina had been proposed early in the railroad era, but until the end of the 1800's only bits and pieces of such a railroad were built. In 1900 the only piece of the future Clinchfield in existence was the Ohio River & Charleston, which meandered a few miles south from a connection with the Southern Railway at Johnson City, Tennessee. 1

First actual construction in the early 1800's was a turnpike from Knoxville, TN to Asheville, NC to Spartanburg, SC. In 1827, a rail line from Charleston, SC (a major seaboard port) to the growing river port town of Cincinnatti, OH was proposed. The Louisville, Cincinnatti, and Charleston was chartered by the South Carolina Legislature in 1835, but construction was never commenced.

By 1853, the Blue Ridge Railroad was begun, starting in Anderson, SC and building north. 25 miles of the line (to Walhalla) were completed by 1861. The Civil War interrupted construction, which was never resumed.

The "3-C" (Charleston, Cincinnatti, and Chicago) Railroad became the latest effort at a line in 1886. A small section of this effort's right-of-way remains a part of CSX trackage today from Unicoi to Chestoa (Clinchfield mile markers 128 to 139.2). A depression in 1893 caused the "3-C" and its investors to suffer heavy losses, finally selling all remaining assets in foreclosure for $550,000.

An attempt at reviving the railroad as The Ohio River and Charleston was made by the new owner. After many changes in plan and attempts at construction, many sections of the line were sold off. The only operating section of the railroad remaining by 1902 was sold to George L. Carter, and the modern Clinchfield was born. 3