The Tennessee Railroad was a short line

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

(4 ft 8in)

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law (legal system), civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier ...

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

running from

Oneida, Tennessee Oneida is a town in Scott County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,787 at the 2020 census. Oneida is known for its proximity to the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. The town is named for Oneida, New York, the hom ...

to Fork Mountain, Tennessee. Reorganized in 1973 by the Southern Railway as the Tennessee Railway, it remains a subsidiary of

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

. Sold at

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

Valentine’s Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it ha ...

in 1918, the Tennessee Railway never was a financial powerhouse. In 1957, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive. In 1959, the first petition for abandonment was filed, but the coal business picked up and it was withdrawn. In 1973, with the railroad in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

, the line became part of the Southern Railway. In the years following, Southern upgraded the line with new ties and rail, daylighted the tunnel near Oneida, and streamlined operations to make the line an important feeder for

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

traffic. As environmental regulations became stricter, and large low-sulfur coal reserves were discovered in

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

’s

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very ...

, coal mining operations in the area began to play out. By 2005, it appeared the Tennessee was again doomed when Southern Railway successor

filed to abandon the line, but thanks to National Coal Corporation, the line was purchased with hopes that the coal mining industry would once again use this route. National Coal originally selected

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintena ...

to manage and operate the line, but only one train ran in 2006. Since then the line has been run by R.J. Corman. In 2008, a company known as the New River Railway began operating passenger excursion trains over various parts of the line. By 2010, the New River Railway was shut down due to colliding with a hy-rail vehicle, and in 2013, the last train ran due to the Baldwin Prep Plant shutting down due to Environmental Violations. In 2023, R.J. Corman started the process to abandon the line, which was met with resistance by a group to save the railroad. Currently, a sale of the railroad for tourist/motorcar use is being discussed by the group and R.J. Corman. In 1991, American country music band

The Desert Rose Band The Desert Rose Band was an American country rock band from Los Angeles, California, founded in 1985 by Chris Hillman (formerly of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers), with Herb Pedersen and John Jorgenson. The original lineup included Bi ...

filmed part of their music video for the single "

You Can Go Home "You Can Go Home" is a song by the American country rock band The Desert Rose Band, which was released in 1991 as the lead single from their fourth studio album '' True Love''. It was written by Chris Hillman and Jack Tempchin, and produced by To ...

" at the Tennessee Railroad Museum.

References

{{reflist Defunct Tennessee railroads Predecessors of the Southern Railway (U.S.) Railway companies established in 1918 Railway companies disestablished in 1973 1918 establishments in Tennessee 1973 disestablishments in Tennessee