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A
Brief History of the NC&StL
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The NC&StL (pronounce "Saint" with the initials)
was chartered in Tennessee on December 11, 1845
and served
the people of the south until it was absorbed by the Louisville
and Nashville railroad in March 1957. The NC&StL's
tracks reached from Paducah, Kentucky south to
Atlanta, Georgia with
a major branch from Bruceton, Tennessee to Memphis, Tennessee.
The Nashville, Chattanooga & Saint Louis Railway was
originally known as the Nashville and Chattanooga, the "N&C"
for short; or just plain "NC."
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The history of the line is speckled with achievement, from
surviving the Civil War to helping move freight and troops
for the two World Wars. From innovations such as creating
it's own streamlined train set including an engine for the
City of Memphis, to being one of the first adopters of the
roller-bearing 4-8-4 steam engine, the NC&StL was a forward-thinking
organization. |
Like any railroad, it suffered through it's own hard times.
The wreck of July 9, 1918 at Dutchman Curve still stands as
one of the worst wrecks in American railroad history.
The NC&StL adopted Diesel's as early as 1941, and maintained
five named passenger trains, more than some larger lines.
The NC was one of the class acts of railroading, one which
justifiably took pride in itself. |
But a great railroad is more than rolling stock, engines,
bridges, stations, yards, and other buildings. It is more
than feats of engineering spanning rivers with bridges, and
tunnelling through mountains.
It is people.
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The NC&StL was a true family line, and it is the people
who worked day in and day out, who deserve to be remembered
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Time marches on, and the people who worked for the rail road
are fading away. Buildings are gone, rolling stock and engines
cut up for scrap, and each day, less of the road is left.
The
NCPS was founded to stop this erosion.
The Society will do everything in
its power to help preserve
not only the buildings, rolling stock, papers and motive power,
but also the memories of those who made sure
the trains got "To and From Dixieland."
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