Virginia & Southwestern Railway Railfan Guide
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- Cities: Bristol TN/VA
- Related Lines: Embreeville Branch | Johnson City & Carolina | Johnson City Southern
- Notable People: Dr. Samuel B. Cunningham | Samuel Spencer | W. Graham Claytor, Jr.
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- Railfan Guides: Virginia & Southwestern
- Resources & Sources: Books | Scholars-Authors | Museums | Associations | Website Editor | Site Map
- Related Websites: Rails Across the Appalachians | Clinchfield.org
Virginia & Southwestern Railway Guide
Railfan Quiz
What partially-abandoned railroad…….
- Circles a major NASCAR Racetrack?
- Passes by the home, store, and performance venue of a iconic country music entertainer?
- Goes through a tunnel that was never dug?
- Follows a trail blazed by Daniel Boone in the 1700s?
- Lies beneath a large TVA lake?
The Virginia & Southwestern (V&SW), or portions thereof……
- Circles Bristol Motor Speedway
- Passes in front of the home and music venue of the Carter Family and June Carter Cash
- Uses Natural Tunnel as an easy passage way through a ridge
- Follows the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail
- Runs along the bottom of Watauga Lake
The V&SW was George L. Carter’s dress rehearsal before he began construction on the Clinchfield Railroad. To form the V&SW, he combined two railroads that each had a very different purpose. What they did have in common was that they both began and ended in Bristol, the city split down the middle by the Tennessee and Virginia state line. The railroad line north was designed to haul coal to Bristol from the mountains of Southwest Virginia. The line south was constructed to bring timber products from the East Tennessee Mountains to Bristol. The Southern and Norfolk & Western Railways were the benefactors, as their mainlines met in Bristol and carried the V&SW freight to major cities in the Northeast and the South.
Virginia & Southwestern Today
The VS&W is one of the most fascinating railroads I’ve railfanned as it is both an active Norfolk Southern rail line and an easy to follow abandoned railroad. Some of the prettiest scenery and countryside you’ll ever see are in the sometimes wide, and sometimes narrow mountain valleys along the V&SW’s short 125 miles. The abandoned section north of Bristol VA is being developed into a beautiful rails-to-trail greenway, the Mendota Trail. Many segments are already open to the public.
Photo: Mural painted on one of the abandoned bridge abutments in Bluff City TN
V&SW Photo Gallery
Recommended Railfan Highlights of the V&SW (North to South)
Use the interactive map below to find these highlights as you travel along the V&SW
- Appalachia VA, a historic railroad town where 3 railroads converged
- Duffield VA to Gate City VA the railroad follows the Boone Wilderness Trail
- Natural Tunnel, which the V&SW uses as an easy passage way through a mountain
- Speers Ferry VA where both the Clinchfield (CSX) and the V&SW (NS) cross a valley. The Clinchfield is higher in elevation, on an expansive Copper Creek Viaduct.
- Moccasin Gap in Gate City VA
- Carter Family Fold and Store near Hilton’s VA
- Mendota Trail (rails-to-trails, Mendota to Bristol)
- Bristol TN/VA, the birthplace of country music
- Bristol Motor Speedway
- Bluff City TN where V&SW crossed the river and the Southern Railway. Mural painted on the abutment.
- Elizabethton where the V&SW interchanged with the ET&WNC
- Watauga Dam and Lake
- Mountain City TN
Virginia & Southwestern Interactive Map
Click here for a Google Interactive Map showing the location of the V&SW as it exists today.
By using the interactive map you will be able to zoom in, zoom out, and move around seeing the ‘close to exact’ location of the roadbed or track.
Segments include abandoned, rails-to-trails, and active Norfolk Southern tracks.
Color Code: Active – Black; Abandoned – Red; Rails to Trails – Yellow
V&SW Trestle-No-More by Ron Flanary
(Narrative and top photo by Ron Flanary)
When the South Atlantic & Ohio Railroad was completing a rail line from Bristol to what would become Appalachia, VA in 1889-90, like most railroads under construction at that period, it relied on the principal of building the cheapest and easiest way possible. Besides, there were series limitations to the ability to move mass quantities of earth at that time. Many small valleys that might otherwise be candidates for fills were, instead, bridged with timber deck trestles.
As the SA&O gave way to the Virginia & Southwestern, and then Southern Railway, the constant maintenance of these old structures (plus their limited weight-bearing capacity) made fills more feasible—particularly as more modern construction equipment and techniques were available. At milepost 22.T of today’s NS Appalachia District there once stood a rather substantial timber trestle. If you head south on old US 23 (“Natural Tunnel Parkway”) from Duffield, after you top the hill at Sunbright (where the old Foote Mineral Plant once stood), and drop down the other side to the point where Stock Creek first parallels the road, you can look to your right and see the railroad crossing a rather high fill.
This was once a trestle that was filled while still in service by dumping huge quantities of rock and other fill material from side-dump railroad cars. In the old black and white shot, train 63–the westbound Bristol Local–crosses behind Mallet compound number 4024. Construction of a concrete culvert had just started. Back in April 2000, David DeVault, Bob McCarcken and I climbed to the top of the fill to photograph a westbound CSX empty hopper train. Unless you knew it, there was no way you could tell this was once a tall timber trestle. And what happened to the trestle? Yep….it’s still inside that big earthen fill, slowly rotting away and going back to the elements.
Virginia & Southwestern History
In 1899 and 1900, George L. Carter bought the South Atlantic & Ohio Railway (Bristol to Big Stone Gap via Appalachia and Natural Tunnel) and the Bristol Elizabethton & North Carolina Railroad (Bristol to Butler and Maymead TN). The new name for the combined railroad was the Virginia & Southwestern Railway. The northern segment was focused on coal, the southern segment on timber.
Over the few years that Carter owned the railroad, he acquired a few spur railroads. He also extended the line to Mountain City TN. The V&S was sold to the Southern Railway in 1906 once Carter started making plans to build the Clinchfield Railroad.
One of the larger rail lines it purchased after it became a Southern Railway property was the Holston River Railroad in 1908. The line, which was under construction connected the Virginia and Southwestern Railroad at Moccasin Gap with the Southern Railway at Bulls Gap TN. This allowed the railroads a much easier route for westbound or southbound coal, through either Knoxville TN or Asheville NC. It also increased railroad competition in the the coalfields, especially with the L&N.
For a decade the V&SW operated as a independent railroad, but in 1916 it became an operating division of the Southern Railway.
V&SW Steam by Ron Flanary
Narrative by Ron Flanary
“A blast from the past: Virginia & Southwestern 2-8-0 No. 70 and crew are shown in this undated (but prior to 1916) scene at Appalachia, Va. The L&N CV Division main line is just above and behind the engine. Check out the Indian silhouette and brass candle sticks mounted in front of the headlight. I’m not a steam expert, but this engine appears to have inboard Stephenson valve gear and piston valves. Two of these hogs double headed could probably handle no more than 18 to 20 loaded coal cars eastbound.”
Southern-Railroads.org Sources and Resources
The following are excellent resources for those of you wanting to explore and learn more about the Southern Railway and its predecessors. These sources of information also serve as reference and historical materials for Southern-Railroads.org. Much of the content on the website is verified across multiple sources.
- Association: Southern Railway Historical Association
- Personal maps, timetables, track charts, and memorabilia
- Book – Flanary, Lindsey & Oroszi: The Southern Railway
- Book – Graybeal: The Railroads of Johnson City
- Book – Harshaw: ‘Trains Trestles & Tunnels, Railroads of the Southern Appalachians’
- Book – Lindsey: ‘Norfolk Southern 1995 Review’
- Book – Poole: ‘A History of Railroading in Western North Carolina’
- Book – Reisweber: ‘Southern Railway Power’
- Book – Scales: Natural Tunnel, Nature’s Marvel in Stone’
- Book – Stout: ‘Southern Railway: Through Passenger Service’
- Book – Ward: ‘Southern Railway Varnish 1964-1979’
- Book – Webb: ‘The Southern Railway System: An Illustrated History’
- Book – Wiley & Wallace: ‘The Southern Railway Handbook’
- Book – Withers & Sink: ‘Southern: A Motive Power Pictorial’
- Book – Wolfe: Southern Railway Appalachia Division
- Magazines – ‘Trains‘ , ‘Classic Trains‘
- Website – Carolana.com – North Carolina Railroads, South Carolina Railroads
- Website – Hawkinsrails.net
- Website – Johnson’s Depot hosted by StateOfFranklin.net
- Website – Multimodalways.org: Norfolk Southern Track Charts
- Website – RailFanGuides.us for Johnson City
- Website – SteamLocomotive.com
- Website – TheDieselShop.us
- Website – VirginiaPlaces.org – Railroad History of Virginia
Contact Us
Would enjoy hearing from you if you have questions, suggestions, edits, or content that you are willing to share. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have similar interests in the Southern or Model Railroads.
3Cs Websites
Appalachian-Railroads.org | Clinchfield.org | Southern-Railroads.org
