The Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad was one of three railroads that used to pass through the Gateway to the New South. However, despite the suggestion of its name, the road never reached Indiana, Alabama or Texas.
The 53-mile-long line ran between Clarksville, Tennessee, and Princeton, Kentucky.
Construction started in Clarksville in 1884.
According to the 1887 annual report of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad:
On November 5, 1885, your Board of Directors authorized the President to make negotiations to control the Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad by purchase.
During the year 1885 a majority of the first mortgage bonds of that company were purchased, and the remaining securities were bought in August, 1886. The entire property is now owned by your company.
The road at the time of the purchase was about thirty miles long, very poorly built, narrow gauge, and running from Clarksville, Tenn., in the direction of Princeton, Ky.
They had virtually no terminal facilities at Clarksville, and as their depot was located on the banks of the Cumberland River, about sixty feet below the tracks of your company, it was found to be impracticable to make a connection with the lines of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and this necessitated the abandonment of about six miles of the Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad Company’s tracks. A line is now being constructed from a point about two miles north of Clarksville, on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which will connect with the Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad at Elliott’s, so that all trains from this division will arrive and depart from the present depot of your company at Clarksville.
The line from Princeton, Ky., is all under contract, and construction is rapidly progressing.
The gauge of the road will be changed to four feet nine inches, which is the standard gauge of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
The line, when completed to Princeton, Ky., will be fifty-six miles long, and it is expected that it will be opened for business early in 1888.
