Virginia & Tennessee Railroad
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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.
- Today: Norfolk Southern
- Railfan Guides: Virginia & Southwestern
- Resources & Sources: Books | Scholars-Authors | Museums | Associations | Website Editor | Site Map
- Related Websites: Rails Across the Appalachians | Clinchfield.org
Virginia & Tennessee Railroad
V&T Stats
- Founded/Chartered: 1848
- Operated: 1852-1869, Bristol was reached in 1856
- Abbreviation: V&T
- Initial Route: Lynchburg VA to Bristol VA
- Length: 204 Miles
- Successors: Atlantic Mississippi & Ohio Railroad, Norfolk & Western Railway
- Cities: Lynchburg VA, Roanoke VA, Marion VA, Abingdon VA, Bristol VA/TN
- Key Individuals: John R. McDaniel, Robert L. Owen, Sr., William Mahone
- Today: Norfolk Southern Railway
V&T History
While not a predecessor to the Southern Railway, the Virginia & Tennessee was a key line that provided traffic and financial success to the Southern.
The Virginia & Tennessee Railroad (V&T) became part of the Norfolk & Western Railway, but provided a key connection to the Southern Railway at Bristol TN/VA.
Content for the V&T Railroad to be added in the coming days.
V&T Map
To see the map in greater detail, use the zoom controls in your browser.
Blackford, W. W. & Ritchie & Dunnavant. (1856) Map & profile of the Virginia & Tennessee Rail Road. Richmond, lith of Ritchie & Dunnavant. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/gm72003016/.
Stacks on the Virginia & Tennessee by Ron Flanary
Photo and Narrative by Ron Flanary
“An excellent example of pre-Civil War railroad construction that is mostly intact and in service today for modern railroad traffic is the former Virginia & Tennessee, constructed from Lynchburg, Va. to Bristol, Va. between 1850 and 1856, when the tracks reached Bristol. There, it met the East Tennessee & Virginia, which had been completed from Knoxville to Bristol that same year. This line formed an important through passenger and mail route as well as for freight traffic. Both pikes were originally built to five-foot gauge.”
As my friend Mark Hemphill has noted in his writings of early railroad construction, given the primitive nature of construction equipment available in this era, earth excavation to maintain uniform grade wasn’t quite the imperative it would be later with longer, heavier, and faster trains. In fact, wherever possible, a route might be literally built along the existing topography by just cutting the trees, grubbing out the stumps, plowing out a right of way, and throwing down ties and rails. Minimal drainage structures were built to keep the railroad from floating away in times of flash flooding, but it would take years of betterments (including line changes to ease curves and grades once steam shovels, better explosives, and steel bridges vs. timber structures) before many of these routes could be considered viable main line routes.
On June 24, 1998, I was looking through a 300mm lens as this eastbound double stack container train rolled through a “swag” near Meadowview, Va. This stretch of swags and hogback ridges most certainly is part of the original construction of the V&T. Such undulating profiles can be difficult to negotiate, particularly for long, heavy freights. Improved train handling techniques, better air braking systems, and the use of dynamic brakes and distributed power (locomotives placed strategically in the train that receive their commands from the lead unit) have made such old alignments more manageable.
This remains an important route for NS to this day. Passenger proponents remain hopeful Amtrak service might eventually be extended from Roanoke to Bristol (with connections, perhaps, to Tennessee). The mixing of several 250-car freight trains with two seven or eight car passenger trains can be an operational nightmare if both are to maintain acceptable velocity. More and longer signaled sidings might be helpful, but the capital costs are staggering.
Southern-Railroads.org Sources and Resources
- Personal Maps, Timetables & Memorabilia – Documents, maps and track charts that I have from the SOU and predecessor railroads
- 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 – 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
- Magazine – ‘Trains‘
- Magazine – ‘Classic Trains‘
- Website – StateOfFranklin.net which hosts Johnson’s Depot
- Website – Carolana.com – North Carolina Railroads, South Carolina Railroads
- Website – Hawkinsrails.net
- Website – RailFanGuides.us for Johnson City
- Website – Norfolk Southern Track Charts at Multimodalways.org
- Website – TheDieselShop.us
- Website – SteamLocomotive.com
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3Cs Websites
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