The Haysi Railroad Company (reporting mark HRR) was a terminal/switching railroad that owned and operated seven miles of track from Haysi, Virginia, to Vicey, Virginia. The railroad was known most for its unusual motive power.

History

The Haysi Railroad was founded in February 1970, after the Clinchfield railroad completed its Greenbrier Branch from Haysi-Vicey Virginia. HRR was controlled by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and

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 ...

(later Family Lines System holding company in November 1972). It served coal mines in and around Haysi, Virginia. On June 1, 1983, the

Seaboard System The Seaboard System Railroad, Inc. was a US Class I railroad that operated from 1982 to 1986. Since the late 1960s, Seaboard Coast Line Industries had operated the Seaboard Coast Line and its sister railroads—notably the Louisville & Nashville ...

merged the Haysi Railroad, ending its existence as an independent entity. In 2007 the last of the coal operations on the line shut down, and since then the line has been unmaintained by CSX, virtually abandoned.

Motive power

The Haysi Railroad probably was best known for its unorthodox motive power, which included an EMD F7B that was built in February 1949 as Clinchfield Railroad F3B #852, and later upgraded to an F7B in January 1952. The Haysi Railroad had acquired the B-unit on April 6, 1970, renumbered it to #1, and equipped it with radio controls and a makeshift cab and bell in 1972. The B-unit was HRR's sole locomotive until February 1977, when it leased four EMD SD18's and four SD9’s from the

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) , informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbor ...

. The SD9’s were leased by the Louisville and Nashville, but were sent to HRR. The locomotives were returned to DM&IR in 1989. #1 is now preserved as VLIX #852 at the

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is a railroad museum and heritage railroad in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum was founded as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1960 by Paul H. Merriman an ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, albeit in rough shape.

References

Defunct Virginia railroads Railway companies disestablished in 1983 {{US-rail-company-stub