The Southwestern Railroad started a gauge spur line from Sparta, Tennessee to

McMinnville, Tennessee McMinnville is the largest city in and the county seat of Warren County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 13,605 at the 2010 census. It was named for Governor Joseph McMinn. Geography McMinnville is located at (35.686708, -85.779309) ...

to connect with the

McMinnville and Manchester Railroad The McMinnville and Manchester Railroad Company was chartered by an Act of the legislature of the State of Tennessee on February 4, 1850.Poor, Henry V. ''Poor's Manual of Railroads of the United States, 1885''. New York: H.V. & H.W. Poor, 1885. . ...

. The Southwestern Railroad Company was chartered in 1851–52 to build a railroad from

Danville, Kentucky Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes ...

to McMinnville in less than ten years. The company received several extensions to complete the road during and after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Former

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

general

George Gibbs Dibrell George Gibbs Dibrell (April 12, 1822 – May 9, 1888) was an American lawyer and a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives from the 3rd Congressional District of Tennessee. He also served as a general in the Confederate ...

served as president. The company went bankrupt in 1871 having constructed only a small part of the road from McMinnville to Sparta. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) purchased the assets. In 1884, NC&StL finished the segment to Sparta to reach the coal mines at Bon Air, Tennessee. The track is operated today by the Caney Fork & Western Railroad (CFWR).

References

External links

Caney Fork & Western Railroad (CFWR)
Defunct Tennessee railroads Predecessors of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Railway companies established in 1852 Railway companies disestablished in 1877 5 ft gauge railways in the United States 1852 establishments in Tennessee {{US-rail-transport-stub