Mary Lee Railroad
The Mary Lee Railroad was an industrial shoreline railroad constructed in 1895 to access mines at Lewisburg (sometimes called the Mary Lee Mines) on Five Mile Creek. It was named for Mary Lee Boyles, the daughter of Bartholomew Boyles who had worked on the construction of the South & North Railroad under John Milner and who owned the mine site. The Jefferson Coal & Railroad Company and Lewisburg Coal & Coke Company extended the line through Boyles Gap as far as Birmingham, six miles to the south.
The Mary Lee property was acquired by the Alabama Consolidated Coal Company in 1899. That firm was acquired by the Sloss Sheffield Steel and Iron Company in 1924 and Sloss used the Mary Lee Railroad to supply its coke works and by-products plants in North Birmingham. The train made service stops at Granlin (Flat Top Mine), Praco, Maxine, Labuco, and Sayre.