Knoxville, TN: CSX/L&N and NS/Sou (Seiver+Coster) Railyards and Southern Depot

NS Seiver: (Satellite)
NS Coster: (Satellite)
NS Knoxville City: (Satellite)
CSX West Knoxville: (Satellite)

See L&N Depot for a topo map of the area.

The shortline Knoxville & Holston River (KXNR) operates the former Southern spur that goes along the river. It also has trackage rights so that it can reach all of the yards except for Seiver.

Will Dunklin posted two photos with the comment: "John Sevier Yard, Knoxville Tennessee, Southern Railway. (now Norfolk Southern). The old postcard c. 1915. The aerial view is 2016."
Dennis DeBruler In today's world of PSR, it is worth noting that this yard has a hump.https://www.google.com/.../@36.0368723,-83.../data=!3m1!1e3
Will Dunklin Yeah, back in the early '80s a friend and his wife had their first house a block north of this yard. Apparently the sound of a hump yard is not really conducive to a good night's sleep!
Dennis DeBruler Just a few hours after I wrote the above, I learned in another post that this hump has been closed:
Âaron Bryanţ: NS removed the hump at John Sevier Terminal, in Knoxville. All the yard tracks just come to a dead end on the west end of the yard now. So crazy.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/201024117511516/permalink/312630439684216/

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Tim Starr posted
The Southern Railway built a new roundhouse at East Knoxville / John Sevier Yard in 1924. (Calvin McClung Historical Collection)

Tim Starr commented on his post
Another view of the roundhouse and machine shop under construction.

An earlier roundhouse.

Rick Shilling posted
c1898 Southern Railway 16 Bay Roundhouse, Knoxville, Tennessee.

 

Richard Shulby commented on Rick's post
GREAT SHOT!- Although I believe this is of the first SR roundhouse in Knoxville, on the north side at the SR Costa shops and yard. Per Sanborn, it originally had 23 bays and was enlarged to approx. 37 bays. I believe it was demolished in the latter 1950s. The current roundhouse in the aerial shot is at the John Sevier yard on the east side of town, and is only half the original size of approx. 32 bays (see 1916 postcard).

I saved the hump yard image because CEO's fixation on the Operating Ratio is killing freight car service. Hump yards may become about as rare as roundhouses.
(Just about an hour after I typed those words, I read this comment on a post:
Âaron Bryanţ NS removed the hump at John Sevier Terminal, in Knoxville. All the yard tracks just come to a dead end on the west end of the yard now. So crazy.

Satellite

When looking for the Knoxville City Yard, I noticed that the Blue Slip Winery might have been Southern's depot. Then when I noticed the platform roof and lineup of passenger cars, I'm pretty sure it was the depot.

3D Satellite

Update:

One of ten photos posted by Timothy Carroll
At Knoxville TN union station

William Cody Memmer posted

This is not my picture!

An Arial view of the NS Yard in Knoxville TN. As of 2016 it has been decommissioned and is being torn apart. I have recent pictures coming soon as I can get to a computer.

Matthew Bolyard What is the heritage of this.

William Cody Memmer Matthew Bolyard it was the Norfolk Southern hump yard in Knoxville but they just built a bigger one in Roanoke so this one is obsolete.

Justin Gillespie There wasn’t a bigger yard recently built in Roanoke. The NW had a hump yard there as well. When the Southern and NW merged they both stayed open, yet recently they were closed.

R Daniel Proctor posted two photos with the comment: "Coster Shop coaling tower demolished, Knoxville, Tenn., April 28, 1953."

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Dennis Mize posted four photos with the comment: "Sept. 26, 1971  Knoxville, TN  John Sevier Yard."

Dennis Mize shared

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Sept. 26, 1971 John Sevier Yard Knoxville, TN. Turntable and 7 remaining stalls of roundhouse still in use. Photo reprint by Dennis Mize.

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Sept. 26, 1971 Engine terminal, John Sevier Yard, Knoxville, TN. Southern TR2B 2454, a 1,000 hp "calf". SD45 3154, SD24 2514 and SD35 3020 are on a refueling track. Photo reprint by Dennis Mize.

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Sept. 26, 1971 Sevier Yard, Knoxville, TN. Old 100 Ton steam wrecker 903003 is parked near the roundhouse. Reprinted photo by Dennis Mize.

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Sept. 26, 1971 Sevier Yard, Knoxville, TN. Smoky Mountain RR GE 44 Tonner parked outside the roundhouse and up for sale. Photo reprint by Dennis Mize.

Louisville & Nashville Railroad Historical Society posted two photos with the comment:

Willoughby--1959 and 1983

Knoxville, Tennessee was a major railroad center in its day, although the closures and/or downgrading of facilities has diminished its importance these days. Just north of the former L&N West Knoxville yard there's a crossing of CSX's KD Subdivision with Norfolk Southern's main to Chattanooga and Atlanta. Thanks to a slide taken by an unknown photographer--but purchased online by Steve Forrest (who generously made it available to the L&NHS) --we have an image of L&N No. 33, the southbound "Southland." This once prestigious passenger run between the Midwest and the West Coast of Florida (via ACL's Perry Cut-off) was just a couple of months from discontinuance when this shot was taken in April 1959. Nos. 32 and 33 were merely daytime runs on the L&N between Cincinnati and Atlanta--coaches only (with a utilitarian "rolling buffet" so its patrons at least wouldn't starve to death or survive on water) and head end traffic. Two E-units were usually the power, as was the case this day. E7 No. 793 was the lead unit on this run.

The interlocking tower was an L&N operation (usually the last railroad to an at-grade crossing had to supply the interlocking controls, and any maintenance or staffing as required). This was a pipe-connected facility, and most likely an "armstrong" control mechanism. You can see the leverman/operator silhouetted in the window. The pipes extend to signals and/or switches as necessary to control movements across the "diamond" for both railroads. Today, it's an "automatic": first come, first served.

I was at the same location on April 2, 1983. By this date, the L&N had become part of Seaboard System. This southbound coal train had been having engine trouble but finally managed to get through the mountainous territory to the north. The middle unit appears to be the problem, with the head brakeman taking a look under the long hood of the former Clinchfield SD40.

Of course, the tower was long gone by then. The billboard advertising Knoxville's 1982 World's Fair dates the shot, although the fair had closed by that time. I understand the crossing at Willoughby is not exactly the safest place to watch trains these days, due to bad actors who just might want to knock you in the head, steal your money, and your camera---or worse. I doubt that was the case in 1959 when someone caught L&N 33 on film.

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