I was reading a paper by a Mr Voyles who was a Road Supt for the Seaboard from Birmingham, AL east to near Ragland, AL, 1912 to 1954. In the paper he talks about the diamond at Wellington where the Seaboard Birmingham to Atlanta crossed the L&N mineral route Gadsden to Anniston. He said that, before his tenure there, there had been a collision when a Searboard passenger train ran a red light (I assume a light guarding the crossing) and struck an L&N passenger train stopped at the Wellington Station.
I can not find any info on such an incident. I live near and remember the crossing, which, since the Seaboard tracks to ATL have been removed, is now just a single line Gadsden to Birmingham leased by the L&N to the Alabama and Tennessee River (ATR) short line. Does anyone out there have any info of such a colllision?
A collision of that type would probably have resulted in fatalities–or at least a spectacular photo op for local news coverage. If you get no other responses here, that would probably be the place to start.
Hmmmm this is a tough one. The only named SAL passenger train I can think of on that line would be the Silver Comet. Of course, I am not sure of what year you are talking about since “early 1900s” is a very broad timeframe. Will try to see what I can dig up. Jamie
The date would have been prior to 1912, since according to the paper by Mr Voyles, it occurred before he was assigned to the area by Seaboard in 1912. I am interested in finding out more about the incident since I have been in the area since 1964, and watched SAL passenger trains at the crossing till they were discontinued (in 1967 I think). Also watched L&N freight at the crossing, though passenger service on this line Gadsden to Anniston was discontinued long before I came here. Never entered my mind that there may have been such an accident as that mentioned. And maybe there wasn’t, maybe just a little bit of mis-information on someones part due the passage of time, etc
I can tell you I searched all of my usual SAL resources and could not find anything. Then again, SAL info is hard to come by anyhow. One place I haven’t looked at yet is the ACL/SAL Historical Society:
Northtowne, the Silver Comet still ran to Birmingham through 1968 (my mother and I rode it from Washington to Birmingham after Thanksgiving of 1968). It was cut off west of Atlanta in early 1969 as I remember, and did not last much longer than that east of Atlanta. The Cotton Blossom was cut off entirely some time after December of 1965 (I rode it from Birmingham to Monroe, N. C. on my way home for Christmas that year); it had not carried a name, but was only described as 5 and 6, for several years before that. When I rode it, #6 was terminated in Hamlet, and if you wanted to continue north, you hoped that it would make the connection with the Silver Meteor. Southbound, it ran all the way from Washington, and the Sunland was combined with the Silver Comet north of Hamlet.
So 1912 is the recent end of the time frame. Is there any way to establish the early end such as the origination of the railroad or relocation of track? I’m guessing that the origination of that crossing might have been 10-40 years prior to 1900, so that would make a fairly large time frame to search. It sounds like the information is coming from a relatively credible source.
I can’t get the link to take me to what you are referring to, so I have not read Mr. Voyles’ account. Is there any way that his account might tend to describe something that has just occurred a couple years previous to his description, versus 15-20 years previous? Generally, with no indication of when prior to 1912, and assuming that the crossing pre-dates 1912, I would start looking at newspapers on microfilm starting at 1900 and working forward. And the success of finding the wreck would depend a lot on what newspapers covered that area in the time frame. A daily paper would be more apt to cover it in terms of days covered, but searching a daily for a several-year time frame is a big task. A weekly probably would have covered it if it were serious. Generally, any accident that produced a fatality was covered by the papers. </
You may be able to take 1893 as an early date for this mishap. The June, 1893 Traveler’s Official Guide of the Railway and Steam Navigation Lines in the United States and Canada shows the junction as being called “Duke” on the L&N’s Alabam Mineral Railroad and “Duke’s” on the East and West Railroad of Alabama–which eventually went, at least in part, into the SAL. In 1893, the SAL went only to Atlanta, using the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railroad.
If there’s a local newspaper in that area that was published that long ago, they may have archival copies that you can research. I worked for a couple of small town weekly newspapers way back in the latter 1950’s and they both had archives going back to their first issue.
Mr Voyles paper says that a 37 mile extension to the East and West Railroad was built into Birmingham by the Seaboard, who by then owned the E&W, and the first Atlanta to Birmingham train arrived in BHM Dec 5, 1904. Don’t know if the mishap occured earlier at the junction but it would not have been a Seaboard ATL to BHM train according to his account.
Go to Google and type in www.rolfilms.com and click on Railroad Historical Journals in the index on the left, since my link on this forum will not get you there. Very interesting first person essay.
Thanks to all for your responses. This is a most friendly and knowledgeable group of railfans.
That’s a good place to start. Another place to look would be your state historical society archives. Odds are they have newspapers on microfilm. Archives are an invaluable research tool. Even though I certainly like the internet, as one who majored in history I find it rather nice to know that not everything can be found with a Google search.[(-D] Nothing wrong with people (Particularly students) having to do a little old fashioned legwork. I must add that I do hope you find the answer to your query.
Speaking as a hobby microfilm researcher, start with the weekly or weeklies closest to the site of the wreck. Once you find the date, then move on to the dailies, where the stories would be longer. Hammering through dailes is mind numbing if you don’t know WHEN to look.