Train depot not on the ‘chopping block’
Two Norfolk Southern Railroad maintenance vehicles are parked outside the downtown Clinton train depot on Sun- day, March 20. Despite handing over some Clinton operations to R.J. Corman Railroad, Norfolk Southern continues to own the depot and use it as a local base. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
In fact, Norfolk Southern and R.J. Corman’s subsidiary, the Knoxville and Cumberland Gap Railroad, continue to negotiate for a long-term lease of the depot, Norfolk Southern spokeman Thomas Crosson said Monday.
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said Monday that the city reached out to Norfolk Southern recently after learning the railroad was selling part of its Clinton trackage to the Kentucky-based R.J. Corman.
“We talked to Norfolk Southern and said that if they wanted to sell [the depot] to talk to us first,” Houck said.
From a preservation standpoint, the city might be interested in it. It is in our historic district, so it‘s limited as to what can be done with it.
“There was talk in the early 1980s about what to do with that building, and that’s what the downtown historic district was set up for. It’s not endangered.”
There has been speculation recently on social media about the fate of the depot since R.J. Corman took over most of Norfolk Southern’s operations in Clinton in late February, with some people calling for the city to buy the property and preserve the building.
But Houck said Norfolk Southern has no plans to dispose of the depot, and is still using it to support some of its continuing operations through Clinton.
While Norfolk Southern sold its track and right of way from Clinton to Rocky Top and north into Kentucky to R.J. Corman, including the line that runs into the Eagle Bend Industrial Park, Norfolk Southern still owns the tracks closest to the depot that run west through Clinton over Main Street toward Marlow and Oliver Springs.
Norfolk Southern still runs trains through Clinton on those tracks. On Sunday, there were two Norfolk Southern support vehicles parked next to the depot, along with a support trailer owned by R.J. Corman..
And, according to Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster, R.J. Corman is now using part of the Clinton depot for its own offices and maintenance operations in Clinton and beyond.
“R.J. Corman had come to us earlier and said they were planning to build a headquarters and maintenance building in Rocky Top, along the tracks near the old Shop Rite supermarket,” Foster said last week.
“But they recently came back to us and said they had put those plans on hold for now because Norfolk Southern had agreed to lease them part of the old Clinton depot for their operations,” Foster said.
Houck said he had been assured that the building was not in any danger of being sold or removed.
With the stretch of rail line from Clinton to Jellico now being operated by R.J. Corman as the Knoxville & Cumberland Gap Railroad, the bright red locomotives of Corman are now running daily in the Clinton area north of the depot and into the industrial park.
The takeover of the line officially began Saturday, Feb. 26, after the deal between Norfolk Southern and Nicholasville, Kentucky-based R.J. Corman 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 leased 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 terminates 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.
Foster said in mid-February that R.J. Corman was planning 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.
He 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 previously were leased from CSX by Norfolk Southern.
R.J. Corman 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.
The acquisition also 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 with Norfolk Southern, 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 would add 154 miles to the more than 1,200 miles of track already being 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.”