Professor Sulzer introduces us to both the mighty and the humble lines that once traversed this important railroad state. Here we meet Tennessee's own Nashville & Chattanooga (later called the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis) and the Tennessee Central. We also come across the Dummy Line, the Jerkwater, and the Tweetsie. We follow the story as 4,078 miles of rail in 1920 dwindles to 2,969 by 1975. But this is not a mere compilation of dry statistics on track closings and running schedules. It is a book full of the life and vigor of Tennessee's economic arteries. Although Tennessee's mining and logging resources were depleted and the rail lines abandoned, the isolated towns and villages find their voice in Professor Sulzer's storytelling.
Ghost Railroads of Kentucky (first published in 1967) and its two sister volumes, Ghost Railroads of Indiana (1970) and Ghost Railroads of Tennessee (1975), provide the authoritative account of the abandoned lines in the railroad heartland east of the Mississippi. No mere compilation of dry statistics on track closings and running schedules (though they are here too!), this book is full of the life and vigor of Kentucky's economic arteries. Professor Sulzer, a consummate storyteller, recounts the human drama surrounding these ghost lines. Even poor Alex Richardson, shamefully lynched on the new railroad bridge over the Kentucky River at West Irvine, has his sad story told.
Details the history of railroad closings and their impact on the railroad traffic running from the industrial North and East to the agricultural South and West.
Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading & Logging in Cumberland, Fentress, Overton & Putnam is a fascinating look back at life in the early 1900s in four counties of the northern Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee. Featured inside is a wealth of old photographs--more than 200 in the book's 120 oversize glossy pages--maps, and descriptions. Emphasis is placed primarily on the coal camps such as Wilder in Fentress County, with great detail concerning the railroads that served the coal mining communities.
The Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad is a perfect example of rail lines in the mid-nineteenth century. Chartered in 1852, the line ran from Paris, Tennessee, to the Kentucky state line and connected with two other routes to create a seamless link between Memphis and Louisville. It shortened the travel time between major economic cities, but its ability to make money didn't match its founders' aspirations. Its detractors ridiculed the route as "beginning in the woods and ending in a hollow tree." Following the Civil War, the railroad revitalized the line, only to run out of money and largely fade away. Author Todd DeFeo recounts the fascinating story of a historic line.
The Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad emerged from a proposal to build a line between Mobile, Alabama, and Evansville, Indiana. Despite its grand plans, the railroad completed only about 30 miles of narrow gauge track from Clarksville, Tennessee, toward Princeton, Kentucky. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad purchased the railroad in 1886 and converted the line to standard gauge. The Louisville & Nashville abandoned the route, later known as the Clarksville & Princeton Branch, in May 1933, relegating it to the history books. Author Todd DeFeo recounts the captivating story of this largely forgotten railroad.
Whether you are reading from your armchair or on the road, this comprehensive tour guide to the state of Tennessee will inform you about the incredible diversity of historic places from east to west. Focusing on the built environment, this reference covers architectural achievements from the state capitol in Nashville to the earliest humble cabins in East Tennessee.
In 1904, when the Hassinger brothers ¿ Luther (L. C.), Will, and John ¿ came from the northwestern Pennsylvania county of Forest to the southwestern Virginia county of Washington with the idea of continuing their father¿s lumber business, they liked what they saw: thousands of acres of virgin forest. Two years later, they built a sawmill in Washington County and a company town to support its workers. L. C.¿s mother, Letisha, named the town Konnarock. In less than ten years, the Hassinger Lumber Company of Konnarock, Virginia, had employed over 400 workers, laid down over 75 miles of railroad track (they named their railroad the White Top Railway), built 20 logging camps, and sawed almost 60,000 board feet of lumber per day at its mill. Not only did the Hassinger Lumber Company cut timber in Washington County, Virginia, they also did extensive timbering in neighboring Ashe County, North Carolina, and also sawed timber cut in Watauga County, North Carolina, when the Deep Gap Tie and Lumber Company, located in the Watauga County village of Deep Gap, bought the Hassinger Lumber Company¿s Shay locomotive No. 3, sending its logs to the Hassinger sawmill in Konnarock, 50 miles away. By the time the blades went silent on Christmas Eve, 1928, almost 400 million board feet of the area¿s best wood had passed through the Hassinger Lumber Company¿s sawmill. This book contains the story of the Hassinger Lumber Company and its company town, Konnarock, as well as information about the Beaver Dam Railroad, the Laurel Railway (both located in the northeastern Tennessee county of Johnson), the Virginia¿Carolina Railway (the ¿Virginia Creeper¿), the logging of the Pond Mountain area of Ashe County, North Carolina, by the Damascus Lumber Company, and the Hassinger Lumber Company¿s logging operations in the Elkland (present-day Todd) area of Ashe County.
