Clinchfield Railroad

The Clinchfield Railroad was the operating and holding company for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway, headquartered in Erwin, Tennessee, with origins in the 1886 charter of the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad; the line was renamed Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio in 1908 and began through operation on December 1, 1924. Running from coalfields in Virginia and Elkhorn City, Kentucky, to textile mills in South Carolina, it was the last Class I railroad built in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It ceased independent operation on January 1, 1983, when it merged into the Seaboard System Railroad following the merger of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, and its line is now owned and operated by CSX Transportation.