Kentucky-based R.J. Corman now running trains on Clinton’s former Norfolk Southern lines

March 2, 2022 by G. Chambers Williams III

It’s official: R.J. Corman Railroad Co., with its bright-red locomotives, now operates over the former Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks in most of Clinton, from the downtown depot area north toward Rocky Top.

One of the R.J. Corman locomotives was running on tracks alongside J.D. Yarnell Industrial Parkway on Monday morning, while four others were pulling a short train along the rail line behind the Clinton Animal Hospital beside North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard.

On Friday, a Norfolk Southern crew made its final runs in the Eagle Bend Industrial Park, delivering propane tank cars to Holston Gas Co. along J.D. Yarnell Industrial Parkway.

One of the Norfolk Southern crewmembers said he and the rest of the crew who normally work in the Clinton area would be moving to the railroad’s yard in Knoxville beginning Monday.

An R.J. Corman supervisor said from his truck next to the downtown train station on Saturday that his company was ready to take over operations in the area on Monday.

While the stretch of rail line from Clinton to Jellico is now being operated by R.J. Corman as the Knoxville & Cumberland Gap Railroad, the supervisor, who declined to give his name, said the locomotives will bear the R.J. Corman name, rather than that of the new line.

The takeover of the line officially began Saturday, after the deal between Norfolk Southern and Nicholasville, Kentucky-based R.J. Corman Railroad was finalized on Friday, Feb. 25, according to R.J. Corman spokesman Todd Bivins.

The Knoxville & Cumberland Gap Railroad line actually begin its service just north of downtown Knoxville, over Norfolk Southern tracks into downtown Clinton, then over the tracks north into Rocky Top, Jellico and southern Kentucky that Corman purchased from Norfolk Southern.

That line then runs east and dips back to the south, where it will terminate at Clairfield, Tennessee. In Clinton, R.J. Corman also took over all of the Norfolk Southern service into the Eagle Bend Industrial Park, which serves several industrial customers.

In conjunction with that, R.J. Corman also plans to build a railroad operations and service facility along the former Norfolk Southern tracks just north of State Highway 116 in Rocky Top, along Railroad Avenue.

Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster said in mid-February that R.J. Corman officials have contacted the city and will submit plans soon to the city’s Planning Commission, in preparation for applying for building permit.

“They want to put it by the railroad tracks by the [now closed] Shop Rite supermarket site,” Foster said, adding that it would be about a 40-by-100-foot building. “They will be running their operations out of there.”

Foster said R.J. Corman plans to run about four trains a day through Rocky Top, about the same frequency of service previously provided by Norfolk Southern.

The changes do not affect the adjacent CSX Corp. tracks and rail service, which runs through the same area in Rocky Top over Route 116 on an overhead trestle. CSX was not involved in the R.J. Corman transaction, other than to lease some trackage rights to R.J. Corman on lines from Jellico into Kentucky that were leased from CSX by Norfolk Southern.

R.J. Corman on Saturday also took over a second Norfolk Southern line that runs from just north of Knoxville in Coster, Tennessee, into Kentucky at Cumberland Gap, terminating in Middlesboro.

Clinton will continue to see some Norfolk Southern trains, though, as that railroad will still own and operate the line into Clinton from Knoxville that branches west in Clinton and runs to Oliver Springs and Harriman.

The acquisition does not affect the CSX Railroad line that runs north-south through western Anderson County.

There are 14 rail customers in a range of industries now using the lines included in the transaction, including coal mines, plastics producers, and a plant that produces paper packaging, R.J. Corman said.

R.J. Corman reached an agreement with Norfolk Southern for the takeover on Dec. 28, and asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to make the deal exempt from federal review. The STB approved the request on Feb. 10.

The STB filing said the acquisition will add 154 miles to the more than 1,200 miles of track now operated by R.J. Corman.

According to its website, R.J. Corman Railroad Co. “operates 17 short-line railroads in 11 states and is a subsidiary of R.J. Corman Railroad Group, LLC. Altogether, the company employs approximately 1,500 people in 22 states.

“In addition to short-line railroad and switching operations, R.J. Corman companies provide a broad scope of services to the railroad industry, such as emergency response, track material distribution, track construction, and signal design and construction.”