Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad

Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad

Reporting mark	ATN
Locale	Alabama
Dates of operation	1897 (1897)–1971 (1971)
Successor	St. Louis–San Francisco Railway
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Length	214 miles (344 km)
Headquarters	Mobile, Alabama

The Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad (reporting mark ATN) was a short line railroad which operated in the state of Alabama. The company was founded in 1897 and merged with the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (the "Frisco") in 1971. The company was also known as the "Port of Mobile Route."

History

In 1897 the Mobile & Ohio Railroad (M&O) chose to route through Pickens County, Alabama, by way of Reform — rather than the county seat of Carrollton — since the Reform route would be faster. Having failed in their appeal to the M&O, leading citizens of Carrollton set up a corporation to connect their city with the railroad; this was chartered by the State of Alabama as the Carrollton Short Line Railway in June 1897. John Taylor Cochrane, who had constructed the Tuscaloosa Belt Line, began building this new railroad. Through mergers, acquisitions and the building of track, the railroad eventually reached the port of Mobile, Alabama. In 1948, the railroad was purchased by the Frisco, who operated it as a separate entity until 1971, when it was absorbed into the parent company.

In 1925 AT&N reported 15 million ton-miles of revenue freight on 187 miles of line; in 1967, 543 million ton-miles on 214 route-miles. In 1950, under the auspices of the ATN, the Frisco began freight service to and from, and on Blakeley and Pinto Islands by way of two car floats across the Mobile river. The service was continued after the SLSF was merged into the BN, until about 1994.