Birmingham Mineral Railroad

The Birmingham Mineral Railroad (BMAL), sometimes called the Birmingham Mineral Branch, or the L & N Mineral Railroad was a common-carrier railroad line opened in 1884 by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad on Red Mountain and across Jones Valley, encircling the city of Birmingham. It was a branch of the North & South Alabama Railroad, one of the two trunk railroads whose crossing established the location for the founding of the city of Birmingham in 1871.

The Birmingham Mineral Railroad in 1930

As a means of securing freight traffic, L & N made it a policy to market mineral-rich lands and to extend railway connections to industrial enterprises that located on them. As developed by L & N's president, Milton Smith, the mineral railroad's primary purpose was to connect Red Mountain's ore mines and nearby coking ovens to the furnaces located along the edge of the Warrior Coal Fields in Jones Valley.

It was chartered for business as an operating division of the L & N on March 19, 1884 and construction of the north branch began at Magella on the north face of Red Mountain. The south branch was constructed simultaneously from the Redding Mine northeast to Grace's Gap. From that point, expansion of the railroad was directed by Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company president John Inman, who was a director of L & N between 1885 and 1895. In return for a major expansion of the railway to encircle the mountain, Inman promised an exclusive freight contract with TCI.

The railroad connected to the L & N's main line near Grace's Gap, between Birmingham and Oxmoor. It looped around the western section of Red Mountain at Reader's Gap, accessing numerous red ore mines stretching southwest to Brickyard Junction near Bessemer. A larger loop curved north past Sloss Mines and over Village Creek toward Woodward. It followed the Warrior Coal Fields past Fairfield, Ensley and Thomas.

A major extension begun in 1887 closed the loop across North Birmingham and toward Gate City and Irondale east of Birmingham. Another line continued on the north slope of Red Mountain toward Green Springs Valley View Mine and Lone Pine Gap, where it crossed over 18th Street South and switched over to the south slope. From there the line, known as the Red Gap Branch made its way on up toward Ruffner Mountain and Trussville.

Various branches of the main loop continued to be added as late as 1917, including spurs to Wenonah, Fossil, Spring Gap, Ishkooda, and Muscoda. Extensions of the line carried traffic as far as Chepultepec Depot in present-day Oneonta. The railroad's circuit and primary branches encompassed 156 miles of track, constructed at a total cost of $6,063,890.00. 55.7 miles of the railroad were laid on Red Mountain.

In 1904 the Birmingham Mineral Railroad division was subsumed back into the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which had just been bought by the Atlantic Coastline Railroad. TCI purchased some of the interior spurs, totaling 8.7 miles, on June 30, 1917. It expanded its private rails by constructing the TCI High Line in the mid 1920s. During the Great Depression a number of Red Mountain ore mines and nearby quarries were abandoned, greatly reducing freight carriage.

Beginning in the 1930s, the railroad ceased to operate and sections of the line were dismantled. The 18th Street bridge was removed in 1933 when the street was widened. A former bridge abutment is still visible on the east side of the Street. Sections of the north branch were utilized sparingly as late as 1988. Part of the western section of the railbed, beginning at Vulcan Park, was re-surfaced, beginning in 2003, as Vulcan Trail, a walking trail with views of the city.

Sections of the rail bed further to the west are planned to be re-used as walking trails in the proposed Red Mountain Park.

References

• Brown, Scott C. and Mark M. Brown (1992) Birmingham District Railroads, Birmingham vicinity, Jefferson County, AL Historic American Engineering Record. HAER ALA,37-BIRM.V,3-
• Klein, Maury (2002) The History of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. 3rd edition. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813122635
• "Old Railroad Route to Become Path for Walkers, Cyclists" (July 10, 2002) Birmingham News.
• Key, Lyle Jr (1988) "Birmingham Mineral Railroad's Red Mountain Route." unpublished paper read at the 1988 annual convention of the L&N Railroad Historical Society. A copy is archived with the Birmingham Historical Society
• "Vulcan Trail: Walking Where Ore Trains Ran." at Birmingham Rails - accessed August 29, 2007
• MacFarlane, James (1890) "An American Geological Railway Guide." 2nd. edition. New York, New York: D. Appleton & Company.