Tuskegee Railroad

Tuskegee Railroad
Locale Tuskegee, Alabama
Dates of operation 1860–1963
Track gauge 3 ft (914 mm) 36" gauge, converted to Standard Gauge in 1898

The Tuskegee Railroad was built in 1860, 5 and 1/2 miles from Tuskegee, Alabama to Selma, Alabama. It was destroyed in the American Civil War and then sold to E. T. Varner & Company, who rebuilt it and reincorporated it into the Tuskegee Railroad in 1902. It was rebuilt to connect the Tuskegee Institute to other railroad lines.

History

1860 Founding

On February 20, 1860, the State of Alabama granted a charter to incorporate the Tuskegee Railroad. The Railroad owners were David Clopton, William Foster, Cullen A. Battle, Robert F. Ligon, J.W. Echols, S. B. Baine, G.W. Campbell, A. B. Fanin, John C. H. Reid, W. G. Swanson and A. D. Edwards.[1] In 1860, 500 Enslaved Africans worked building the railroad under lease agreements with plantation owners who collected pay for the slave's labor.[2]

Civil War - Rail Destroyed

U.S. General Sherman sent U.S. General Lovell Rousseau on a raid of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad where he destroyed rail to the Chehaw Station of the Tuskegee Railroad, cutting of connections to the Tuskegee Railroad from all points.[3] The Tuskegee Railroad was melted down by Confederates for armaments for the American Civil War.[4]

1872 Reconstruction

William G. Swanson and others bought the defunct railroad in 1869 and signed an agreement with E. T. Varner & Company. E. T. Varner & Company who rebuilt the railroad by 1872. It was run by E. T. Varner & Company as the Tuskegee Railroad until 1902 when it was incorporated under that name and owned by E. T. Varner, L. V. Alexander and Campbell & Wright.[5] Rates were 10 cents per mile in 1882.[6]

1943 Tuskegee Airman

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen remembered the 99 Squadron of bombers riding on the Tuskegee Railroad in 1943. He mentions segregation in his autobiography, unfair treatment of black people and the 19 pullman drawing room where the railroad put black politicians so they would not see worse effects of segregation.[7]

Sale of Railroad in 1963

When Interstate 85 was built through Alabama and Alabama State Route 81 was widened connecting the Tuskegee Institute to the Interstate in 1963, the need for the railroad was gone and the railroad received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to no longer operate. Trains were salvaged and warehouses were built where the depot was demolished after some of the property was sold.[4]

1978 Literature

Ralph Ellison wrote The Little Man at Chehaw Station: The American Artist and His Audience about a jazz musician playing a street performance in the Great Depression. The setting used was the Chehaw Station of the Tuskegee Railroad.[8]

Line

Stations

The train made three round trips, one at night. It took about 1 hour and thirty minutes to go one way.[10]

Cars

Between 1888 through 1916 the Tuskegee Railroad Company had two locomotives, one to two passenger car and a baggage and mail car.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Alabama Public Service Commission (1890). Annual Report of the Rail Road Commissioners of Alabama, for the Year Ending ... Office of Rail Road Commission of Alabama. p. 374.
  2. ↑ James Benson Sellers (30 June 1994). Slavery in Alabama. University of Alabama Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8173-0594-9.
  3. ↑ Robert W. Black (2004). Cavalry Raids of the Civil War. Stackpole Books. pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-0-8117-3157-7.
  4. 1 2 Joseph P. Schwieterman (2001). When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment. Truman State Univ Press. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-0-943549-98-9.
  5. ↑ United States. Interstate Commerce Commission (1927). Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. L.K. Strouse.
  6. ↑ Alabama Public Service Commission (1882). Annual Report of the Rail Road Commissioners of Alabama, for the Year Ending ... Office of Rail Road Commission of Alabama. p. 114.
  7. ↑ Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (19 April 2016). Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.: American: An Autobiography. Smithsonian Institution. pp. 530–. ISBN 978-1-944466-03-9.
  8. ↑ Ellison, Ralph (Winter 1978). "The Little Man at Chehaw Station: The American Artist and His Audience". The American Scholar. 47 (1): 25–48. JSTOR 41210352seq=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A1138d44eacaacd9e045fb3c199b2650f#page_scan_tab_contents.
  9. ↑ The Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition. National Railway Publication Company. 1896. p. 2.
  10. ↑ Bright, David (c. 2017). "Tuskegee". Confederate Railroads. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  11. ↑ Price, David. "Tuskegee Railroad". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
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