Around 4 p.m. on February 10, 1870, locomotive No. 9, a Norris & Son-built 4-4-0 steam locomotive, was pulling a freight train over the Red River trestle roughly near Clarksville, Tenn., when tragedy struck.
The caboose was a dangerous place for railroad workers, and the train crew on a Louisville & Nashville near Clarksville, Tenn., learned this in September 1905.
The 1869 disaster at Budds Creek in Tenessee left five people dead and more than two dozen injured. The tragedy garnered a considerable number of headlines in newspapers nationwide, but what happened is a mystery.
The Indiana, Alabama & Texas Railroad has a confusing corporate history. Despite its name, the railroad only built 58 miles of track in Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Tennessee Central Railway, which at its heyday operated a line between Harriman and Hopkinsville, Ky. Like other railroads in the latter half of the 19th century, the Tennessee Central grew after combining a slew of smaller short lines, many of which bore the name “Tennessee Central.”