Cotton was once the cash crop of Talladega County. Marketing goods to textile mills in the north proved a daunting task for local farmers when, in the first half of the 19th Century, almost all Alabama cotton was transported by steamboat to Mobile, New Orleans and into South Carolina. The county’s waterway, the Coosa River, prevented steamboat travel because of its non-navigable waters in the area, so farmers traveled by land south to Wetumpka to ship cotton to Mobile, but by the end of the 1850s "railroad fever" had arrived.
Railroads were constructed throughout the area, and Coosa Station, located at what is now known as Cosper Bend Road in Childersburg, was built.
"The Southern Railroad is the second oldest in Alabama," said George Limbaugh, director of the Childersburg Chamber of Commerce. "It started near Calera, came through Childersburg, and ran all the way to Alpine, and I’m telling you that was a deal for us."
On a steamy summer day in 1858, more than 8,000 people gathered to celebrate when the first train reached 100 miles at the Alpine station.
The Southern Railroad was earlier named Central of Georgia Railroad, which can still be seen on the viaduct built in 1925, crossing over First Street in downtown Childersburg.
The railways built here eventually extended from Mobile to Chattanooga, and farther east and west into Georgia. "It was the South’s link to the rest of the world," Councilman David Dunlap said.
"Railroads meant so much to small communities," Limbaugh said. "They meant so much because before there was no truck delivery. Merchandise was shipped to one of the depots and that was the only way to get it."
When the Alabama Ordnance Works located in Childersburg at the start of World War II, the government used the rails and built additional tracks, or spurs, into the ammunition plant that would create explosives sent to allies fighting in Europe.
"The government built the railroads in ’41 for the powder plant and still used them a short period of time after the war was over," Limbaugh said.
When the plant closed, the remaining buildings were burned and the Army eventually sold off most of the 13,000 acres of land and property the plant sat on. The railroads remained property of the government, which leased them to railway companies until this year.
There are only four major railroads left in the U.S., two of which are Norfolk Southern and CSX Railroads, both running through the city today.
Now that Childersburg is the owner of roughly 13 miles of railroad tracks given to the city by the Army in March, ownership could bring in a substantial annual income from the lease of the railroad tracks, and help to recruit industry at the developing Coosa Industrial Park.
The rails, running through the site of the future industrial park, were given to the city in March along with 2,300 acres of land off of Alabama 235 for the development of the park. It has been a slow process to acquire the railway but, "It’s going to help develop the property and will be an asset to the city," Mayor B.J. Meeks said. "We’ll probably see it start attracting industries to locate here."
The Army previously had an agreement with Norfolk Southern and CSX, which ended the day the city took possession of the tracks. The Army’s annual revenue brought in through the lease of the rails was about $26,000.
At the end of last year, the city’s Local Redevelopment Authority voted to extend an agreement between the Army and CSX and Norfolk Southern Railroads until a new agreement can be worked out. This insured that use of the tracks wouldn’t be disrupted when ownership changes. The city will eventually collect money through the extended agreement from the day the city took possession.
In October, a consulting firm was hired to appraise the value of the lease or sale of railroad tracks, and is in negotiations with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railroads on new agreements, Meeks said. Money made from the lease of the railroads from the industrial park must be put back into the parks’ development for the first seven years of ownership of the property.
Beside railroad access, the site already has resources such as electricity, water, natural gas, and roadways. Plans are also underway for a sewage system, entrance and a general use building. "Very few cities actually own their own railroads; we wouldn’t have this except we acquired the land. This could mean so much for our city."
