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Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway

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Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
NC&StL steam locomotive 576, now displayed in Centennial Park in Nashville
Overview
HeadquartersNashville, Tennessee
Reporting markNC
LocaleKentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia
Dates of operation1873–1957
PredecessorNashville and Chattanooga Railroad
SuccessorLouisville and Nashville Railroad
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Length1956: 1,043 miles (1,679 km)

The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (reporting mark NC) was a railway company operating the in the southern United States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville in December 1845 and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee.[citation needed]

History

It took nine years to complete the 150 miles (240 km) of line between the two cities,[citation needed] a task which was made much more difficult by the steep elevations of the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau lying in between. A tunnel of 2,228 feet (679 m) near Cowan, Tennessee was considered an engineering marvel of its time[citation needed]. Due to the difficulties of the terrain, this line between Tennessee cities actually crossed over into two neighboring states, Alabama and Georgia, for short distances. New towns sprang up along the line during construction, such as Tullahoma and Estill Springs.[citation needed]

During the Civil War, this line became highly strategic to both the Union and Confederate armies. The Tennessee campaigns of 1862 and 1863 saw Union troops force the Confederates back from Nashville to Chattanooga almost exactly along the line of the railroad. It was repeatedly attacked, sabotaged, damaged, and repaired, and was used at various times to supply both armies.

After the war, the company made acquisitions of other, smaller lines to the north, and was reincorporated as the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) in 1873 (although none of the company's tracks ever actually entered St. Louis, Missouri). In early 1877, the NC&StL purchased the assets and name of the bankrupt Tennessee and Pacific Railroad from the state and operated it as a spur to Lebanon, Tennessee.

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, an aggressive, potential competitor of the NC&StL, gained controlling interest in it in 1880 with a hostile stock takeover that created massive civic rancor between the cities of Nashville and Louisville.[citation needed] The two railroads continued to operate separately for over 75 years before finally merging in 1957. Despite the takeover, the NC&StL was allowed to continue to grow with the acquisition of various branch lines in Kentucky and Alabama and expansion from Nashville to Memphis. In 1890 the railroad reached Atlanta, Georgia, by successfully leasing the state-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad.[citation needed]

The L&N, itself controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in the same fashion that the L&N controlled the NC&StL, was merged in to the Seaboard System Railroad, and then into the CSX freight rail conglomerate, which continues to use the original NC&StL tracks between Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Preserved equipment

Two 4-4-0 locomotives, The General, and The Texas from the NC&StL's predecessor road, the Western and Atlantic, are preserved and are on display in museums in the Atlanta suburbs of Kennesaw and Grant Park, respectively.

In 1953, the NC&StL donated its last remaining steam engine, No. 576, to the city of Nashville. This engine, a J3-57 class 4-8-4, originally known as a Yellow Jacket manufactured by the American Locomotive Company (“ALCO”) in 1942, has been on display in Centennial Park ever since. In deference to its Southern heritage, NC&StL itself referred to 4-8-4 locomotives as Dixies while most other railroads called them Northerns.

In 2004, a former NC&StL diesel locomotive 710, an EMD GP7 was restored to its original paint scheme by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

In 2007 former NC&StL GE 44 ton Diesel (1950) Huntsville terminal switcher number 100 was moved from Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee to Cowan, Tennessee at the Cowan Railroad Museum ( cowanrailroadmuseum.org ). Though subsequently an L&N engine (number 3100),she was cosmetically restored to original scheme and number. In the process, the locomotive was found to be runable. Important as the first transitorized remote control locomotive in the US (converted in 1962)

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Anon. (June 1996) [January 1953]. Official Railway Equipment Register. The Railway Equipment and Publication Company, reprinted by National Model Railroad Association. ISBN 0-9647050-1-X.
  • Drury, George H. (1985). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Company. pp. 200–201. ISBN 0-89024-072-8.
  • Prince, Richard E., Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway: History and Steam Locomotives. Indiana University Press, 2001. ISBN 0253339278.
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