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 and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

(4 ft 8in)

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

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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 ...

Fork Mountain, Tennessee Fork Mountain, Tennessee, is a former coal mining camp, located on Tennessee State Route 116 and the New River, at the Morgan County- Anderson County line. Petros is 4.2 miles to the south. Frozen Head State Park is nearby with the park bounda ...

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

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

. 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 stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

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 one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thro ...

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"—especially in ca ...

, 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 elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

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

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

’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 s ...

, 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) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco was composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is th ...

to manage and operate the line, but only one train ran in 2006. Since then the line has been inactive. In 2008, a company known as the New River Railway began operating passenger excursion trains over various parts of the line. 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 Bil ...

filmed part of their music video for the single " You Can Go Home" 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