The Shelby Iron Company Railroad was an Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 railroad company that started during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. The Shelby Iron Company Railroad was built to connect the Shelby Iron Company in Shelby County, Alabama

Shelby County, Alabama

Shelby County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama and a part of the Birmingham–Hoover–Cullman Combined Statistical Area. It is named in honor of Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky. The county seat of Shelby County is Columbiana. As of 2010 U.S. Census the population was 195,085. Shelby...

, to the Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad at Columbiana, Alabama

Columbiana, Alabama

Columbiana is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 4,197. The city is the county seat of Shelby County.-History:...

, a distance of about five miles.

History

The Shelby Iron Company was a major supplier of Confederate iron during the War Between the States, with almost all the iron produced being delivered to the Confederate Naval Works in Selma.

By 1863, officials with the iron company were attempting to increase output, but were hampered by the lack of a railroad line. Confederate Ordinance officials prevented the construction for more than two years by threatening to have senior company employees conscripted if they built the line. Despite the threat, construction began in 1863 and was completed in January 1865.

Rolling stock

The railroad's only locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

, called The Decatur, was purchased in 1864 from the Alabama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad, and the company used railroad car

Railroad car

A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...

s borrowed from other carriers.

Destruction and rebuilding

The Iron Works was destroyed by Union forces on March 31, 1865. Around 1867, the Shelby Iron Company reconstructed its rail spur from Shelby to Columbiana and the furnace was rebuilt by February 1869. The Shelby Iron Company Railroad was operated by the ironworks until it was purchased by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad

Louisville and Nashville Railroad

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...

 in 1892 and made part of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad. Both operators provided sporadic passenger service until 1927.