The Cumberland Valley Subdivision ( CV Subdivision) is a railroad line owned and operated by the CSX Railroad (

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

) in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Virginia. The line runs from Corbin, Kentucky, east to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, along a former

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

line. At its west end, the

CC Subdivision The CC Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Kentucky. The line runs from Taylor Mill, Kentucky, to Corbin, Kentucky, for a total of . At its north end the line continues as a branch of the Cincinnati ...

heads north to Cincinnati, Ohio, and the

KD Subdivision The KD Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The line runs from Corbin, Kentucky, to Etowah, Tennessee, for a total of . At its north end it continues south from the Corbin T ...

heads south to Etowah, Tennessee. The east end is at an interchange with the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

Appalachia District, where CSX trains can proceed south to the Kingsport Subdivision at Frisco, Tennessee, via trackage rights.CSX Huntington West Division Timetable
/ref>

History

In 1886, the

(L&N) began to work toward a route through the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield and Southwest Virginia in an effort to connect to the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

(N&W) somewhere near Norton, Virginia. Surveyors identified a route via Middlesboro, Kentucky, a tunnel under Cumberland Gap, and up the Poor Valley. The line was completed to Middlesboro in 1889, and then on to a place called Intermont, Virginia (now

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

) where it connected with the Atlantic and Ohio (later Southern Railway). The route was completed to Norton, Virginia (then Prince's Flat) in April 1891. The L&N began to make way into Harlan County, Kentucky by taking over the under-construction Wasioto and Black Mountain Railroad, completing that line to Harlan, Kentucky in 1911. Further progress was made in 1930, when L&N completed what was then the Martin's Fork Branch and constructed a 6,244-foot tunnel under the Cumberland Mountain at

Hagan, Virginia Hagan is an unincorporated community in Lee County, Virginia, in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. ...

. Original plans called for an extension to connect with the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio Railway (better known as the Clinchfield Railroad). However, plans were scrapped due to financial uncertainty, and the L&N decided instead to connect the new tunnel to the existing Middlesboro–Norton mainline via a

switchback Switchback may refer to: Transportation * A hairpin turn on a road * A horseshoe curve * A zigzagging pedestrian or cycling ramp * A roller coaster, or a roller coaster-like road * A zig zag (railway) * The Switchback, a former railway line in ...

References

CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in Kentucky Rail infrastructure in Virginia Louisville and Nashville Railroad {{Virginia-transport-stub