The year is 1978. A chilly, but busy November morning is underway on the Clinchfield Railroad. A
large coal train gets set to leave the Erwin yard on its way to Spartanburg, SC. A small freight train is
heading in from Elkhorn City, KY. All up and down the Clinchfield, switches are thrown, tracks are lined
and trains are sent on their way, and it’s all controlled by one machine: the Centralized Traffic Control.
In other words, the Centralized Traffic Control was the eyes, arms and brain of the entire
Clinchfield Railroad.
The Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) is an elaborate machine with countless levers, dials and
buttons, somewhat resembling the control room of a nuclear power plant rather than something found
on a railroad.
In the early days of railroading, communicating was relatively simple. Employing the usage of
lanterns, flags and sometimes even basic hand signals, the railroad would soon need a more efficient
way to communicate. In 1955, the Clinchfield completed installation of the Centralized Traffic Control.
At the time, the CTC, as it’s otherwise known, represented the pinnacle of railroad technology. One
man, a dispatcher, seated at a desk could control every single aspect of the railroad except for the men
operating the trains.
The dispatcher could open and close switches, interact with trains and communicate with crews.
Every single switch and signal on the Clinchfield , from Elkhorn City to Spartanburg, was operated from
the Centralized Traffic Control located in Erwin. Flashing lights of various colors helped the dispatcher
keep track of the operation. By employing the use of the Centralized Traffic Control, trains were able to
move goods up and down the line with incredible efficiency. Train orders were filled in a fraction of the
time as compared to before.
Wilbur Craft Jr. was a train dispatcher for the Clinchfield from 1979 to 1988. He still works as a
train dispatcher for CSX in Huntington, WV. He was assigned to Huntington after the dispatching unit
was de-centralized in 2008.
“We’d move out anywhere from 20-25 trains a day,” said Craft. “I’d sit and operate the switches.
Before the days of the CTC, everything had to be written out manually.”
The machine was also set up so that it was virtually impossible to align trains with conflicting
movements. The Centralized Traffic Control would continue to operate throughout the 70’s and into the
80’s. In 1982, the Clinchfield, along with the Seaboard System, were merged into newly-formed CSX.
“The day came when I had read out the train orders to the crew after the merger,” said Craft.
Craft would typically read out the train orders to crews and the crews would read the orders
back as acknowledgment. Craft said he remembers the day when all the train crews had to read back
the orders as ‘CSX’, and no longer ‘Clinchfield’.
“That was an emotional day,” said Craft. “I could hear the train crews [over the radio]. It was
just very emotional.”
On October 11th, 1988, the Centralized Traffic Control was permanently removed from service.
No longer would dispatching operations be handled in Erwin, but rather in Jacksonville.
CSX had no more use for the Centralized Traffic Control and the machine was moved into the
Erwin Town Hall where it was covered up in the basement and put away.
There it would remain until this year when the newly opened Clinchfield Museum built on an
extra room to house the machine. The Centralized Traffic Control now sits on display at the museum as
the newest exhibit. The machine is still in relatively good condition and visitors to the museum have the
rare opportunity to get up close and personal with the brain of one of America’s legendary railroads.
The Clinchfield Museum sits adjacent to the Unicoi County Heritage Museum and the Erwin
National Fish Hatchery. The museum is open on weekends and curator Martha Erwin offers tours of the
exhibits. Anyone with comments or questions regarding the museum or the Centralized Traffic Control
may call the museum at 423-743-9449.