The Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad was a

short line railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

which operated in the state of

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. The company grew from an acquisition of an existing logging railroad in 1897, and merged with the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (the "Frisco") in 1971. The company was also known as the "Port of Mobile Route."

History

John Taylor Cochrane acquired the Seaboard Railroad, a 6-year-old 33-mile narrow-gauge logging line, in a foreclosure sale in 1897. Separately, Cochrane was approached by the citizens of

Carrollton, Alabama Carrollton is a city in and the county seat of Pickens County, Alabama, Pickens County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 1,019, up from 987 in 2000. The Hugh Wilson Hill House / Kelly - Stone - Hill Place is a histor ...

to build a short-line connecting railroad for their town. It seems that in 1897, the

Mobile and Ohio Railroad Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ...

chose to route through

Pickens County, Alabama Pickens County is a County (United States), county located on the west central border of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,123. Its county seat is Carrollton, Alabama, Carrollton, ...

by way of the town of Reform, Alabama—rather than the county seat of Carrollton—and the town needed to connect to Reform. Thus the Carrollton Short Line Railway was chartered, and built in 1900. Through mergers, acquisition of trackage rights, and the building and reconstruction of track, these two railroads eventually joined under the name of the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad, and the line was completed all the way from Reform to the port of

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

. By 1948, the Frisco had purchased controlling interest, and operated it as a separate entity until 1971, when the line was absorbed into the parent company. In 1925, ATN reported 15 million ton-miles of revenue freight on 187 miles of line; in 1967, 543 million ton-miles on 214 route-miles. In 1950, under the auspices of the ATN, the Frisco began

freight service In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in case ...

to and from, and on Blakeley and Pinto Islands by way of two

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it i ...

s across the Mobile River. The service was continued after the SLSF was merged into the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...

, until about 1994.

References

* * * Defunct Alabama railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Predecessors of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Railway companies established in 1897 Railway companies disestablished in 1971 1897 establishments in Alabama 1971 disestablishments in Alabama {{Alabama-stub