NS: (Bridge Hunter; same satellite)
Clinchfield is a nickname for the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio RR and the reporting mark was CCO.
The lower bridge is NS and the taller trestle is CSX.
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| Aug 2018 photo taken by Timothy & Joann Phillips via BridgeHunter-NS, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) |
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| Ron Flanary posted Clinchfield Ten-Wheeler No. 1 was easing her two-coach train backwards across Copper Creek before charging across southward for a photo run-by. This was in the summer of 1978, and this was the last time the engine operated solo. Unfortunately, nothing came through on the Southern Appalachia Division below during our stop here. Copper Creek was completed and opened for traffic in 1908--seven years before the Clinchfield (CC&O) became a through route with a connection with the C&O in Elkhorn City. Allan Johnson: Isn’t he about at the spot where the derailment was in March I think in 78? Ron Flanary: Allan Johnson It was closer to the north end. Randall Hampton shared |
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| Ron Flanary posted In September 1990, a morning eastbound NS coal train is crossing the low bridge over Copper Creek, near Speers Ferry, VA. [I could not find Speers Ferry on Google Maps. But then I remembered that Bridge Hunter probably had a search function. So "Copper Creek" made it easy to find these bridges.] Randall Hampton shared He's just a few miles south of Natural Tunnel. The upper bridge is the old Clinchfield. Dennis DeBruler  The bridges are where the Copper Creek joins the Clinch River. |
The girders across the towers are 40' and the girders between the towers are 70'. The short girders are as deep as the long ones. The top of the bridge is 167' above ground. [BridgeHunter-CSX]
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| Street View |
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| James F. Gentner captured the road side plaque in Jun 2009 "At 167 feet over the Copper Creek - Clinch River junction, the Copper Creek Viaduct wsa then one of the tallest railroad bridges in the eastern United States. Construction of this trestle -- and many other bridges and fifty-five tunnels -- by the CC&O opened up coal deposits in Virginia and Kentucky via a superbly engineered direct rail route to numerous cities in the Carolinas, Georgi, and Florida. Prior to its completion, alternate rail routes to these markets were over one hundred miles longer and featured some of the steepest grades in the United States." [What a difference a decade can make. The plaque says the Clinchfield route handles 18-24 coal trains a day. In Oct 2015, CSX mothballed the line between Elkhorn City, KY, and Spartanburg, SC. But it was reopened in 2017 because of Hunter's new "Precision Schedule Railroading" traffic pattern. [American-Rails] CSX and NS share each others route through here. That is why the photo on the plaque has a CSX train on each bridge.] |
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| Glenn K. Berry posted Taken back in early spring, Norfolk Southern and CSX tracks, running parallel over the Clinch River in Virginia. [It is next to Clinch River instead of over it.] |
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| Ron Flanary posted On November 13, 1984, a westbound Southern Yuma Turn scurries home to Andover after delivering a coal train to the holding yard near the Tennessee border. This was a morning shot, so I was on the shadow side of the big former Clinchfield trestle over Copper Creek (Speers Ferry, Virginia). The turn had eight four-motor units, a radio car, and a cab. Bryan Russel shared Dennis DeBruler shared The red caboose lets us know that we are looking at four locomotives pushing the train. |
Note the NS bridge peeking out amongst the trees at the bottom.
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| Aug 1987 photo by Geoff Hubbs looking East via BridgeHunter-CSX, License: Released into public domain |
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| Looking Northeast via Pinterest via BridgeHunter-CSX, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
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| I love Trains posted photo courtesy of Timothy Taylor - CSX over and under Mike Dancy: Copper creek Viaduct on the old Clinchfield main upper. NS line to Big Stone Gap Va lower. The bottom one is NS. It is the old Southern Railway line, The top one is the ex Clinchfield main. NS has trackage rights on CSX from the connection at Frisco, Tenn. outside of Kingsport to St. Paul, Va. CSX occasionally uses the lower line that goes to Big Stone Gap, Va by trackage rights. That line connects with ex L&N trackage in the coalfields and the former Interstate railroad which was bought by the Southern many years ago. They swapped trackage rights agreements many years ago. Michael Taylor: I would imagine this is a posed publicity shot. B.F. Adams: You really should credit the actual photographer. I don't know who Timothy Taylor is but as listed on the Railpictures by line at the bottom of the photo the photographer is me Franklin Adams. And it is not an "over under" the NS bottom and CSX top are actually running parallel. |
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| Ron Flanary posted On September 4, 2005, a southbound NS coal train is captured in pixels as it crosses CSX's former Clinchfield Copper Creek Viaduct near Speers Ferry, Va. Randall Hampton shared NS trackage rights on Clinchfield, Copper Creek Viaduct |
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| Ron Flanary posted Another oldie from 1996 to offer some visual relief to the oppressive heat most of us are experiencing. CSX southbound manifest freight Q691 is easing across the former Clinchfield Copper Creek Viaduct near Speers Ferry, VA after a heavy snow on January 7, 1996. Typical of the problems railroaders face in harsh winter conditions, the snow has caused a signal system outage between Starnes and Kermit, so the train is rolling along at restricted speed in observance of the rules. The track below is Norfolk Southern’s ex-Southern Appalachia District main line between Bulls Gap, TN and Andover, VA. Justin Gillespie: We lost power for 6 days in Johnson City with this storm. Randall Hampton shared Randall Hampton: I didn't realize until I visited how close it is to Natural Tunnel. Dennis DeBruler shared Roger Allen: Excellent shot...does the Southern track parallel the CSX? |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's comment Only between Clinchport and Speers Ferry. 1955 Johnson City Quad @ 250,000 |
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| Ron Flanary posted October 25, 1984: Seaboard System--the early incarnation of the former SCLI portion of CSX--assembled this "photo train" on the day noted. The three EMD six motor hoods were all in fresh SBD paint, as well as a cut of rebuilt hoppers on the head end. I'm not sure where the company photographer posed this southbound for images, but by the time it got to Copper Creek, I didn't see anyone else with a camera. The weather that day wasn't terribly cooperative, and they had missed the peak fall colors by a couple of weeks. Ronald David Back: Ron, I was skeptical at first about the Seaboard System logo, but honestly it has grown to be one of my favorite schemes! Troy Nolen: Ronald except SCLI wasted A LOT of money in the late 70's through mid 80's painting units. They seemingly went all out to paint L&N into Family Lines paint and then Seaboard System paint, only for them to finally come up with a unified CSX paint scheme in 1987. A lot of the SCL/L&N units (later SD40-2's, C30-7's, B23-7's, MP15's) that were delivered in Family Lines paint soldiered on without being repainted, some even made it to retirement in Family Lines paint, while others, like the SD50's and B36-7's that were delivered in Seaboard System paint were repainted by 1990. Even a lot of the older units repainted into Family Lines paint or were still in predecessor paaint in the 70's or early 80's got some version of CSX paint before they were retired (like the GP16's, U18b's, GP30/35's) Randall Hampton shared |
Note the NS/Southern trestle in the foreground. It looks like it had wood bents back then.
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| Street View, Oct 2021 |
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