The Southwestern Railroad started a 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge spur line from Sparta, Tennessee to McMinnville, Tennessee to connect with the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad. The Southwestern Railroad Company was chartered in 1851–52 to build a railroad from Danville, Kentucky to McMinnville in less than ten years. The company received several extensions to complete the road during and after the American Civil War.[1] Former Confederate general George Gibbs Dibrell served as president.[2] 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.[1] In 1884, NC&StL finished the 26-mile (42 km) segment to Sparta to reach the coal mines at Bon Air, Tennessee.[3]
The track is operated today by the Caney Fork & Western Railroad (CFWR).
References edit
- ^ a b DeBow, James Dunwoody Brownson (1900). "The Southwestern Railroad Company, (Now Forms Part of McMinnville Branch)". Legal history of the Entire System of Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry. and Possessions. Nashville, Tennessee: Press of Marshall & Bruce Co. or Marshall & Bruce Co., Law Publishers. pp. 192–196. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
- ^ Tngenweb.org biography of Dibrell
- ^ "Railway Work and Plans, New Lines Nearly Finished or Proposed" (PDF). The New York Times. April 3, 1884. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
External links edit
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