Alabama & Tennessee River Railway

The Alabama & Tennessee River Railway (reporting mark ATN) is a shortline railway operating (via lease) over trackage formerly operated by CSX Transportation. The line's western terminus is a junction with the CSX (former Louisville and Nashville Railroad) main line in Birmingham, near CSX's Boyles Yard. The eastern terminus is in Guntersville, near the Tennessee River. The parent company of ATN is Omnitrax, a major operator of American and Canadian short lines.

The route is a combination of the remnants three former lines: the Seaboard Air Line (SAL) Atlanta-Birmingham main line, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad former Mineral Belt line from Birmingham through Trussville's Roper Tunnel to Gadsden and Talladega, and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway line from Guntersville to Attalla, which once went further north to Huntsville using a car ferry over the Tennessee River. All of these lines eventually fell under the ownership of CSX. CSX and its corporate predecessors abandoned the L&N line south of Wellington, Alabama, where it crossed over the SAL main line; later the SAL line was abandoned from Wellington to Atlanta. The portion of the former L&N line from just north of Attalla (at its junction the NC&StL line) through Oneonta to Birmingham was sold to a quarry owner along the line, who intended to operate it as an independent shortline. Almost all of the line was later abandoned, leaving an L-shaped line from Birmingham to Guntersville. CSX operated this as the Alabama Mineral Subdivision.

In 2004, CSX leased the line to Omnitrax, which gave the line its current name. According to Omnitrax, there are more than three dozen online customers. The line includes a short branch to Ivalee in Etowah County which serves a Tyson Foods feed plant; this branch is a stub of the former L&N line to Birmingham. ATN interchanges with CSX at Boyles Yard, and with Norfolk Southern (former Southern Railway) at Attalla.

References

• Alabama & Tennessee River Railway. (2012, November 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:23, November 26, 2012, from [1]