Just looked up the Clinchfield on Wikipedia, and it was noted as the last major railroad built east of the Mississippi R., beginning operation in 1924. Being a mid-westerner, the Clinchfield, other then having a rather intriguing name, remained an unplumbed mystery. Wonder if it's demise is not similar to the Milwaukee Road's Pacific Extension, just one railroad too many? Hate to see any shrinkage of the US railroad structure (and attendant job loss), but the twists and turns of the economy and commodity demand will always be with us. I ponder the wonderful railroad system that covered all of northern WI and U.P. MI, most of which has been eliminated, as demand for timber, pulp wood as well as iron and copper ores, diminished.
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