Clinchfield Railroad

When Steam Ran The Clinchfield

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Interesting book published in 1993, second edition, by Gem Publishers in Erwin TN. It covers all of the steam locos of the Clinchfield, with pictures of many of them, plus seven and a half pages of photos of wrecks. There is also a section on Floyd Bruner, a noted photographer of the line. This particular book is signed by James Goforth.
There is also a 1998 edition of this same book, with a colorized and redesigned cover, published by Overmountain Press of Johnson City TN.

Bear Pen Gap tunnel

Bob LawrenceLeave a comment

bearpenwestportal

A person who follows this blog queried me on a tunnel he’d found access to of Hwy. 83 in Dickenson County VA.  I searched it out and found what it was, but I couldn’t find a blog entry about it.  I’d slipped up.  I thank the guy who caught this.
This is Bear Pen Gap tunnel, west portal, taken in April, 2011.  In my original digital photograph, the east portal is just barely visible at 1/2 mile away.  Returning to this portal today, May 24, 2015, I couldn’t see the other portal.  Part of the tunnel may have collapsed.  Very dangerous.
The air coming out of this tunnel today was cool enough to condense breath.
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This is the east portal, taken in April, 2011.  The water, as of May, 2015, was still flowing off the left side ledge.  This portal is a little over a half mile from Fremont.
This was the one tunnel on the Clinchfield Railroad’s old Fremont branch, which, starting in 1947, ran from Fremont to Moss #1 mine a little over 14 miles away.  The mine shut down in 1989, but this line was used for a couple more years hauling wood chips from an operation at the Moss location.
The latest rail date we saw in this area is 1972, Lackawanna.
As we walked up to this portal four years ago, a kid (maybe 13-14 years old?) came down the embankment.  He was totally togged out in Army fatigues – cap to boots – and was sporting a fake pistol in a proper holster.  We all nodded to each other and passed on, but my buddy and I exchanged a puzzled look.  Cosplay is everywhere.
Note: a bear “pen” is a place where early settlers trapped bears and killed them for meat.

CXS Pony Plate Bridge

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This is a multiple unit pony plate bridge over the Nolichucky River (in the background) and some privately-held land.  This is looking northwest.  The bridge is about 680′ long and belongs to CSX (old Clinchfield).   There’s a big dent on the top of the plate nearest the camera, indicating that some time in the past, something got off the tracks.  To the left of where I’m standing (36.09812, -82.44180) is the old community of Unaka Springs.

Vandals have relieved all sections of this bridge of their manufacturer’s date plates.  Boo.  Hiss.

#54 Honeycutt tunnel

Bob Lawrence4 Comments

This eastern portal of Honeycutt tunnel is at 35.86638030, -81.969960.  The tunnel is 1,688′ long and about a half mile or so west of the Ashford Cut.  The reface date on the lintel is 1923. This, of course, is the penultimate tunnel on the line from Elkhorn City KY and Marion NC.  I stood and looked at this tunnel for quite a few minutes, knowing this was the end of an over two-year project to document these tunnels.  This was the last tunnel to be photographed, since we had gone into Marion two weeks earlier and had recorded the tunnel there.  My buddy walked over to an outcropping over to the right of  the line, back about 50′ or so, to investigate what appeared to be a cave.  It wasn’t, but he found two stone cairns there.  Since this tunnel is relatively isolated, I wonder if they were piled up by the workers here in 1907 – 1908.  Could have been grave markers, too, since many men, often foreign labor, died blasting out these tunnels and doing the hard labor of laying a railroad.

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#53 The Loops: 4th Rocky

Bob Lawrence2 Comments

I mentioned in an earlier posting that 3rd Rocky tunnel (centered at 35.85881, -81.99896), was opened up, according to Goforth, in 1977.  It was originally about 420′ long.  As Butch Adkins commented, this was to widen the area to extend a siding track, not due to any instability of the ridge.
This, however, is the very sturdy 4th Rocky tunnel, just 179′ long.  This southwest portal is at 35.863089, -81.990881.  No visible date on the lintel.  We were rather tired by the time we got to this tunnel, having walked from 2nd Rocky down past the remnants of 3rd Rocky.  It was only about 2 miles, but, then it was 2 miles back.

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#51 The Loops: 2nd Rocky

Bob LawrenceLeave a comment

Just about 770′ to the south of 1st Rocky is 2nd Rocky.  It’s 757′ long. This south portal is at 35.865584, -82.004314.  The date on the refurb portal is 1918. You have to get permission to cross private land to get to both 1st Rocky and 2nd Rocky and there are two ways to get to them after that.  Fairly easy.  4th Rocky is a long trek away.  Believe me.

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This is the northern portal of 2nd Rocky.  The date is partly eroded. I can see 192, but the fourth numeral is gone.

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#50 The Loops: 1st Rocky

Bob Lawrence2 Comments

We’ve taken about four trips to figure out ways to get to these often isolated tunnels.  This last Sunday was my long anticipated “that’s a wrap” trip.  We got the two tunnels that finished off the quest to photograph the 54 tunnels between Elkhorn City and Marion NC (there were 55 tunnels, but 3rd Rocky was opened up in 1977…there would have been 56, but the Ashford Cut couldn’t support a tunnel – and a gracious thanks to Dr. Brown for that piece of information).  So, here we are at 1st Rocky, 716′ long and this, the southern portal, located at 35.869675, -82.006134.  This tunnel, which is the first on the long glide down to Marion, is so named because it’s rocky.  The platform to the left, (see comment below)

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#31 Sensabaugh tunnel

Bob LawrenceLeave a comment

Located through Sensabaugh Ridge at 36.577409, -82.625001, this bendy little (348′)  tunnel is about a half mile south of Click tunnel, on the other side of Sensabaugh Valley, just a hop, skip and a jump from Beartown.  We’re almost 89 miles from Elkhorn City.  This view is looking south.  I found a really nice piece of quartz near here, but I didn’t keep it.  “Oh, joy, another piece of quartz.”

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#8 Hewitt tunnel

Bob LawrenceLeave a comment

This is Hewitt Tunnel, about 13.6 miles from Elkhorn City.  This was the most difficult tunnel for us to reach, since we opted not to wade the McClure River (it would have been easier to do that…the river’s not really deep in that area), but to drive in on a road I’d spotted on Google Earth.   The gravel road was about a mile downhill with drainage berms cut across the road a regular intervals.  I got my Honda Civic over them with minimal scraping going down, but coming back was a white knuckler as the car spun in the gravel and failed to gain traction.  With my buddy’s pushing and the little car’s gutsy (!) front wheel drive, we managed to get the job done, but my hands were shaking from adrenaline when we got back to the main road. I also found out later that all that spinning and stuff had basically destroyed my tires.  It was time for new rubber, anyway.