Eastern Railroad Discussion > Birmingham & Southeastern Railroad

Anyone have any information on this now non-existent railroad?

From looking at the 1962 Official Guide, it appears that it operated 7 miles from Milstead to Tallassee Alabama and
operated six scheduled trains a day handling freight, mail, and express.

Was this actually a railroad, or original railroad that became a truck service?

Regards, Jim Evans

Was this not a steel plant road?

FiveChime Wrote:
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> From looking at the 1962 Official Guide, it
> appears that it operated 7 miles from Milstead to
> Tallassee Alabama and
> operated six scheduled trains a day handling
> freight, mail, and express.
>
> Was this actually a railroad, or original railroad
> that became a truck service?

http://www.msrailroads.com/B&SE.htm

Valley Railroad 2-8-0 97 was B&SE 200.

By 1948 the only portion remaining was Milstead-Tallassee. The Blount family became wealthy in the construction business, and Winton Blount, Jr. was the last cabinet-level Postmaster General.

Thanks for the information, but it still doesn't explain why there were six scheduled trains in 1962 over such a short railroad.

Regards, Jim Evans

I suspect the six-train timetable was a joke. I don't know if there was ever more than one customer on this line, a large cotton mill in Tallassee, except during the construction of the Thurlow and Yates dams in the 1920s. One train a day would have been more than enough to bring cotton bales to the mill and take away finished products, and the railroad would have been "dispatched" 100% under yard limits.

FiveChime Wrote:
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> Thanks for the information, but it still doesn't
> explain why there were six scheduled trains in
> 1962 over such a short railroad.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> I suspect the six-train timetable was a joke.

I don't think it was a joke - the timetable in the link I posted showed 4 trains each way, no doubt connecting with WofA passenger trains at Milstead and SAL trains at Fort Davis.

But I seriously doubt there were still six trains in 1962, and the Guide listing was probably renewed without being updated. As far as I know the railroad never bought a diesel, and according to the above link 200 was retired in 1953. I was under the impression that 200 operated into the Sixties, but I would trust David Price and Gil Hoffman before I'd trust my memory of something I once heard second hand - both were very active photographers in the 1960s.

Since they aren't even sure when the railroad stopped operating, it's entirely possible it was effectively shut down long before 1962.

> I don't think it was a joke - the timetable in the
> link I posted showed 4 trains each way, no doubt
> connecting with WofA passenger trains at Milstead
> and SAL trains at Fort Davis.

Tallassee has a population of only several thousand people. The B&SE southward from Milstead through Fort Davis to Union Springs was abandoned during the Great Depression. The last passenger train on the SAL Montgomery-Fort Davis-Savannah was dropped in 1953. If it's not a joke, then it's an absurd reprint of material from the 1920s.

The September 1949 official guide, that I have, shows... 3 "trains" each way between Milstead and Tallahassee...but above each column.. it shows "motor", possibly implying Motor coach (Bus).. with connection at Milstead to the West Ry. of Alabama..

It was not uncommon for this railbus service to run twice per three shifts to deliver workers to and from the outlying areas to the cotton mill. That would give you six trains easily There were at least two mills, not just the one. One of the old mills was gutted in the last five years for the timbers. The other collapsed for the same reason. The tracks were still in place around it and the bridge over the Little Tallapoosa is still there too and it is very easy to see the old RofW--or it was a half dozen years ago during my last visit to Tallassee. A woodyard and storage track was at Milstead and it was once two spurs on what was a wye back in the late 1980s. This was all that was left of the junction. The woodyard is gone and all that is left if the old Milstead siding and part of the house track.

H in AL

I can imagine a bus (instead of a real train) serving the mill area. But I still can't imagine it happening in the 1960s. I lived in Elmore County for a while. By the mid-1950s, the WofA was down to three daily passenger trains in each direction. Two of these trains (the Crescent and the Piedmont) didn't stop at Milstead. The unnamed all-coach train still did, but it was also the next train to be discontinued.