Clinchfield’s
Elkhorn Extension
The Clinchfield Railroad was a coal hauling bridge route
extending from Elkhorn City, KY to Spartanburg, SC through the rugged mountains
of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Elkhorn Extension from Dante
yard north to Elkhorn traverses the rich Dickenson county Virginia “Clinch”
coalfields. More than 20 coal tipples dot the 36-mile line providing five to six
hundred carloads per day for the railroad. I model the Elkhorn Extension
of the CRR in the 1974 -1975 era.
The multi-leveled layout has three branch line operations:
Nora Spur, Fremont Branch and the Haysi branch, which were serviced by the
Clinchfield. The layout occupies approximately 950” and encompasses 300” of
mainline with seven passing sidings.
The primary coal classification yard, Dante lies in the
narrow Lick creek valley just north of St. Paul, Virginia (see map). With room
for only 7 tracks the two-mile long yard has four primary areas of operation.
The Phillips load yard with four tracks is where cars are classified for
southern destinations. The four-track Scale yard holds cars to be individually
weighed and humped over the scales and ridden down into the Phillips
classification yard. The empty yard
stores trains of empty system hoppers brought to Dante by Extra North trains.
And the Engine service area where diesels are serviced between runs and which
includes the Diesel Shop, fuel pumps, sand, and car repair shop. Dante yard
office is the center of crew operations on the North end.
From the Elkhorn Extension three major branch lines
accessed the coal mines of Dickenson County. The Nora Spur had five active coal
tipples in 1975 including the Blue Diamond facility with its 32-car load
capacity. The Haysi Railroad or “Greenbriar Branch” boasted three large
modern coal loaders, Greenbriar, Crooked Branch and Rual. There were seven
active truck-dump coal tipples along the 14-mile Fremont Branch. This
significant branchline was built in 1947 to serve Clinchfield Coal Company’s
Moss One preparation plant. Up to 250 cars per day were cleaned and processed at
the huge facility.
Division
or location: Elkhorn
Extension
Interchange
Railroads:
Size
of Railroad:
950 square feet
Scale:
HO
Era:
Early 1970’s
Throttle
system:
Digitrax
Scale
Clock Speed:
4:1
Length
of Session:
12 fast hours
Number
of Crew:
10
Train
Control: Verbal Track warrants with Radio communication.
Radio’s required.
Listed
Jobs: Dispatcher,
2 yard Crews, and 7 road crews.
Layout photos (click on thumbnail to enlarge):
