South and Western
On October 30, 1905, T. E. Goodin worked with the Blue Ridge Mountain Crew as a Conductor for South and Western, owned by George L. Carter. Carter purchased a portion of the Ohio River and Charleston Railway in 1902, with tracks running from Johnson City to Boonford, North Carolina. According to James A. Goforth in, Building the Clinchfield, Carter's purpose in changing the name to South and Western was to confuse competitors in regards to intended terminal points. Carter's ultimate goal was to develop the coal fields in southwest Virginia and extend the railroad to the south Atlantic coast. M. J. Caples, based in Johnson City, was the chief engineer. Born in Ireland in 1864, Caples began working in the engineering corps in 1884 with Boston and Lowell. Goforth credits Caples with the "superb construction standards to which the Clinchfield was built."
Mr. Mel H. Wilder, Superintendent, was the employing officer. Goodin worked from Carnegie to Spruce Pine, N.C. as Conductor on the work train, which laid the rail from Spruce Pine to Loop, N.C. The Blue Ridge Mountain Crew consisted of Goodin, Arthur Allison, Engineer, Mr. Henson, Fireman, Harry Dean, Flagman, and Dick Norris, Brakeman.
One of the early locomotives (1906-1907) used on the old South and Western Railroad. The train and construction crew are from left to right:
Top Row, On Engine: "Red" Harvey, Burson Love, and George Mallicote
Bottom Row, L to R: Phil Whitlow, Tom Goodin, Conductor, Claude Morgan, Tom Washburn, Jake Hopson, Bob Norris, and Hu Fortune, Engineer
Tom Goodin was Conductor, and Claude Morgan, Engineer, on the first train to run from Erwin, Tennessee to Altapass, North Carolina, when Altapass was the end of the line.
Goodin was issued an annual pass on the S&W in 1908, which was one of the last passes issued before S&W became the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway.
According to James L. Lonon, in Tall Tales of the Rails on the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio, between 1908 and 1910, first-class trains traveled no more than 30 miles per hour. Second-class and inferior trains were restricted to 20 mph. "They were, in both cases, break-neck speeds for their day."
Unsung Heroes
Crews who built the railroad needed to be hardy stock. Immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Russia were recruited, many "just off the boats." African Americans and convict labor also made up the railroad workforce. In Appalachia, A History, by John Alexander Williams, he says "the overwhelming majority of convict laborers were black." An article from The Charlotte Observer, dated August 23, 1953, by Ashton Chapman, reported on the "hastily dug graves" that could be found along the railway. Reid Queen, who worked as a pipe fitter on the railroad, said he "vividly recalls some of the violent deaths that befell unfortunate laborers through explosions, cave-ins and other accidents." Various disasters, exposure, disease, and squabbles among workers that often led to violence, were other causes of death. Reid Queen witnessed seven men being buried alive at the base of a 30-foot cut when the bank caved in at Bear Creek in Mitchell County, covering them in loose rock and dirt. In Upper Bridle Path Tunnel, Queen told of numerous cases of dynamite being carried into a tunnel. A worker was using a sharp rock to remove the heavy wooden cases, when a detonation occurred. Of the nine men, only three could be found. Queen stated "the other six were splattered all over the rocky walls of the tunnel."
The work was done mostly by hand. Mule-drawn carts and drag pans were the only "mechanized" tools available. Holes were drilled by hand and filled with explosives. Chapman states that this "Herculean task" was accomplished with manual labor by more than 3000 laborers and 200 mules.
The photographs below portray the monumental task facing the workers.
The Loops: Conquering the Appalachians
In the book, Conquering the Appalachians, Mary Hattan Bogart, daughter of W. C. Hattan, outlines the details of the unprecedented and daunting task of going through a mountain. Between 1905 and 1908, after failed attempts, George Carter hired William Cary Hattan, as Resident Engineer, to conquer the "impassable mountain barriers of the Blue Ridge." This series of spirals called "The Loops," is referred to as an "engineering marvel." Bogart states that "those who do work of this nature today, observe this accomplishment with deep wonder and astonishment."
The Charlotte Observer described the magnificent feat this way: "Through one of the wildest and grandest mountain regions on the continent, a corps with practically unlimited financial resources built a railroad which for solid construction and freedom from heavy grades can bear comparison with any."
W. C. Hattan was the engineer of thirty-two of the fifty-five tunnels on the Clinchfield. There are eight tunnels in the Loops. According to Bogart, who referenced Jim Goforth, these were the tunnels referred to in the above section "Unsung Heroes" regarding the loss of nine men to a dynamite explosion. Goforth added that "Hattan had just walked out of the tunnel when the explosion occurred."
According to Bogart, the 20 miles between Spruce Pine and Marion, North Carolina were the costliest, both monetarily and in human lives, with estimates of "one million dollars per mile of track," and "no record of lives lost."
One stretch of road, in the Blue Ridge section at Altapass, the highest point on the Clinchfield route, took four years to complete. Bogart gives the following specifications that illuminate the magnificence of this endeavor: "the road descends 2629 feet in eighteen miles, with seventeen tunnels in a spiral curve for four miles."
William Cary Hattan Photographs of the Loops
The old historial marker claims that the 29 miles of track and 18 tunnels that make up the Loops follow the trail of Daniel Boone and the heroic Kings Mountain Men.
The newer historical marker with information about the Loops states: "4,000 workmen, mainly Russian, German and Italian immigrants, began blasting and hammering their way over and through the mountain. It is believed that more than 200 men were killed before construction of the Loops was completed in 1908."
This photograph, from the William Cary Hattan Collection, features a train making its way through the Loops.
For more photographs in the Willam Cary Hattan Collection: