Where Southern and N&W Met

Straddling the Virginia-Tennessee state line, Bristol was a showcase of steam and classic diesels in the late 1950s

Straddling the VirginiaTennessee state line, Bristol was a showcase of steam and classic diesels in the late 1950s

A BOUNDARY LINE WAS FORMED IN THE LATE 1700s when Virginia became the 10th state of the new Union on June 25, 1788, and Tennessee acquired statehood as the 16th one on June 1, 1796.

A half-century later, when a town — Bristol — had been founded straddling that border, two railroads from opposite directions began building toward it. Having constructed 204 miles from Lynchburg, Va., the Virginia & Tennessee’s first train arrived in Bristol on October 1, 1856. Although the East Tennessee & Virginia had started construction earlier, 130 miles away in Knoxville, Tenn., it reached Bristol second, on October 8, 1858.

And then the Civil War broke out. Bristol was smack in the bullseye of it, being on one of the Confederacy’s principal supply routes.

With Union sympathizers on both sides of that border, the two railroads’ trestles and their separate Bristol depots were repeatedly burned.

Sixteen years after the war, the Virginia & Tennessee was folded into the Norfolk & Western in 1881, while the ET&V became part of the Southern Railway in 1896. Although the railroads remained separate, a joint Bristol depot, still standing today, was finished in 1902.

Bristol was also to have another railroad, the Virginia & Southwestern, extending 69 miles farther into the tail of Virginia to Appalachia, via Speers Ferry, Natural Tunnel, and Big Stone Gap. For a while, with a connection to the Louisville & Nashville at Appalachia, Bristol enjoyed Pullman service to Louisville, Ky. On the east side of Bristol, the V&SW headed for the tip of Tennessee, ending at Mountain City. The V&SW was absorbed into the Southern in 1916.

Today, the old V&SW between Moccasin Gap and Mountain City is long gone. The 1982 merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern put the remaining line through Bristol under the single ownership of Norfolk Southern, although trains — all of them carrying freight now — still change crews as they pass through.

In East Tennessee are the Tri-Cities — Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City, about 25 miles apart from each other. I grew up in the 1950s in Kingsport on the beloved Clinchfield Railroad, but I was attracted to the activity at Bristol because of the passenger trains and the N&W’s steam engines. The big varnish shows were the Pelican and Tennessean, which came in from the east behind N&W J-class 4-8-4s and continued west with Southern diesels (plus, in the middle of the night, the Birmingham Special).

And there was N&W’s Abingdon Branch mixed, which originated at Bristol, plus Roanoke–Bristol mail trains 9 and 10.

As a kid with no car or driver’s license, it was only when my mother or a friend would take me to Bristol that I could submerge myself in its railroad nectar. Riding a bus to Bristol wasn’t practical since I would still have been too far from the N&W roundhouse when I stepped off. Beginning in fall 1958 when I enrolled at East Tennessee State College at Johnson City, I could still admire the passenger trains, but steam was ending at Bristol. I satisfied my yearning for steam by eating my sack lunch aboard one of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina 2-8-0s as the crew made up their train. The ET&WNC ran steam until 1967, but I’ll always treasure my 1950s experiences at Bristol.

STEVE PATTERSON retired from a 42-year career with Santa Fe and BNSF in 2007. He has been contributing to Trains since 1960 and Classic Trains since 2000.

Southern and N&W shared the N&W roundhouse, located on the Virginia side of Bristol. SOU F3 4151 and N&W J 602 wait to take trains west and east, respectively, on March 2, 1957.

Also on March 2, 1957, N&W Y6 2145 has just arrived at the roundhouse to be serviced and turned. The 2-8-8-2 will likely depart on scheduled time freight No. 88 at 3:05 p.m.

Having brought train 46, the Tennessean, into Bristol from Memphis at 10:10 a.m., two of the six Alco PAs Southern purchased for that service rest until leaving on No. 45 at 5:30 p.m. on February 17, 1957.

Left: M-class 4-8-0 382 prepares to leave Bristol station with N&W’s Abingdon Branch mixed train, known as the “Virginia Creeper,” on June 30, 1956.

Below: On November 23, 1957, J-class 605 brings train 41, the Pelican, into Bristol, where the Washington–New Orleans train will be handed back to Southern for advancement west. Note the SOU RPO car first behind the 605.

Above: N&W 9 and 10 were mail trains stopping on flag at all stations between Roanoke and Bristol. They were scheduled to meet at Abingdon, with 10 departing Bristol at 1 p.m. and 9 arriving at 1:45. Here’s No. 10 at Wallace, about 4 miles out of Bristol, on November 23, 1957.

Bristol: Two states, two railroads

Right: N&W’s Bristol yard switcher, M-class 4-8-0 379, has strayed across State Street and into Tennessee on March 2, 1957.

Above: Its tender filled, the 604 moves off the turntable and into a roundhouse stall to be lubricated and inspected from the pit underneath.

Left: J-class 4-8-4 604, having come in with the Pelican, is coaled and inspected on March 2, 1957. After turning and further servicing, the 4-8-4 will depart with mail train 10.

Right: Southern GP7 2195 shows off its original green body color as it works in the joint SOU-N&W yard at Bristol on August 8, 1956.

Below: Two Southern PAs moving from the engine terminal 11/2 miles to the east pass through the Bristol depot on August 8, 1956. They’ll wait at the station’s west end to replace an N&W J on train 45, the Tennessean. The N&W RPO car will go out on mail train 10.

Left: J No. 602 hustles the Tennessean out of Bristol on March 2, 1957. With four regular stops and the possibility of six flag stops, train 46 will average 42 mph over the hilly 209 miles to Monroe. Below: For lighter freight work on various lines, N&W had 16 K1class 4-8-2s such as No. 104, simmering near the Bristol roundhouse on February 17, 1957. Bottom: Southern F units and PAs and an N&W Y6 wait at the roundhouse water tank for their next assignment on March 2, 1957.