Watco embraces Smoky Ridge, a small railroad with a mighty past
3/12/2026
By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor
Watco last month added a 13-mile railroad to its network of 48 short lines and regionals.
Anchored in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Smoky Ridge Railroad is the first rail line Watco has acquired in the state. And while Smoky Ridge might be small, it represents big potential for the rail transportation and supply-chain services company.
The rail line also has a fascinating history. In the 1940s, the U.S. Department of Energy used the railroad formerly known as Heritage Railroad Corp. to move enriched uranium as part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret U.S. government program during World War II to build the world’s first atomic weapons used in war time. The project took place at three primary locations: Oak Ridge; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The U.S. deployment of atomic weapons in Japan in August 1945 is considered one of the most significant world events of the 20th century: It launched the age of nuclear weaponry. Smoky Ridge is located near the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Oak Ridge, where visitors can learn about the community’s role in the atom-bomb building project. The park is part of the National Park System.
“We’re excited to work with [the railroad’s] future partners and all the local stakeholders.” — Cody Gilliland, Watco“I’ve had a lot of friends and colleagues ask me what I’m working on and after we closed [on the acquisition] I told them to look up the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge,” says Cody Gilliland, Watco’s vice president of marketing and sales. “It’s an interesting thing to be a part of that history; it and World War II were the defining moments of my grandparents’ lifetime and the lifetime of geopolitics.”
While captivated with the history, Gilliland and Watco leaders are more excited about the railroad’s future. The short line interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway in Blair, Tennessee, and currently provides first- and last-mile service to two customers, hauling primarily plastics and waste. One of those customers is global nuclear energy company EnergySolutions, which and sold the line to Watco.
“We’re excited to grow our partnership with Norfolk Southern even more into this region,” says Gilliland, noting that Oak Ridge is undergoing an economic development boom.
Community, political, economic development and business leaders are seeking to build on the area’s legacy in nuclear energy by recruiting projects focused on the sector. In recent years, at least 10 companies have announced nuclear projects expected to bring in a combined $12 billion worth of investments to Oak Ridge, WBIR 10 News, the community’s NBC affiliate, reported in December 2025.
There are thousands of acres available for development, Gilliland says. Watco is ready to work with local economic development authorities and businesses to find sites that can accommodate their rail and/or transload service needs, he adds.
Although waste and plastics currently are the two main drivers for the railroad, Watco is prepared to offer rail service for any type of commodity.
“In the short term, we’re trying to support those pledged investments with raw materials needed to build their facilities, setting up numerous transloads along the railroad to assist in development of properties and then other rail-served investments that are coming into the region,” Gilliland says.
Watco anticipates business growth will result from the already pledged developments over the next 36 to 60 months. Today, the railroad hauls less than 200 carloads per year; Watco’s target over the next 60 months is to boost that traffic to 1,500 to 1,600 carloads per year, according to Gilliland.
Turning what is now a small, underutilized railroad into something much bigger is in Watco’s “wheelhouse of development,” he says. Presently, the short line employs a crew of three and owns just one locomotive, but plans to add another.
“This is a fun project,” Gilliland says. “It’s awesome to be able to talk about the history, but it’s also great to look at the investment that’s coming into the region. We’re excited to work with those future partners and all the local stakeholders.”
