By Danny Crownover
Back in 1883, Major Hugh Carlisle reported that construction on the Tennessee & Coosa Railroad from Guntersville to Gadsden, started in 1852, had been resumed and the line would be completed.
Major Carlisle, was a Scotland native who built a country home near Guntersville in the late 19th century.
Carlisle was one of the largest stockholders and was also a contractor and builder of railroads.
He said that he had gone over the old roadbed that had been graded years before and that he found it in better shape than he expected. Trees had grown over the graded section and in the cuts to such an extent as to protect the right of way from erosion. There were few washouts he said.
The old roadbed was being cleared and the crews were nearing Albertville. The major said that $100,000 would be required to complete the grading, that $120,000 would put down the best of steel rails and that $80,000 would equip the road with all the necessary rolling stock.
He was planning to put a large number of men to work on the deep cut in the gap through which trains were to climb to the top of sand mountain. The cut was to be 60 feet through solid rock.
Many will recall that this cut was at what became known as Littleton. It was a long time before the Tennessee & Coosa Railroad was completed. Trains did not go through from Gadsden to Guntersville until in the early 1880’s.
It was originally planned to build a bridge across the Tennesse River at Guntersville but when the road fell into the hands of the N.C. & St. L. That idea was finally given up and steamboat transfer from Guntersville to Hobbs Island for connection with the main line into Huntsville was established.
It is still the longest transfer of its kind in the world. Several years ago the N.C. & St. L. abolished its passenger service between Gadsden and Guntersville because of an almost lack of patronage.
Major Carlisle finally built his railroad and in doing so acquired 70,000 acres of valuable land along the right of way, a donation from the federal government as an aid to the project.
That made him the largest individual property owner Alabama ever had.
At the same time that Major Carlisle was making his predictions Osgood Welsh, of New York owner of the East Alabama Railroad, arrived in Gadsden to talk about a road from Anniston to Decatur by way of Gadsden.
He was accompanied by his superintendent, William Barnes. They talked as if they would adopt the route surveyed by the L. & N. for a road from Decatur to Gadsden two years previous.
That route went up on sand mountain near Gregory Gap, leaving the old line of the Tennessee & Coosa several miles to the right, going west.
In the late 1880s the Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad was built from Anniston to Gadsden and Attalla. It became the L. & N. Railroad and is part of the Alabama Mineral Division.
Contact The Vagabond at dkcrown@bellsouth.net.
