Product Details

 $50 to $75

Historical Context

Chartered in 1884 and completed early the following year, the Chattanooga Union was a belt railway connecting all of the railroads entering the city. In 1895 the Chattanooga Union Railway Company was reorganized as the Belt Railway Company of Chattanooga.

Later that year, it was reorganized by the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. The BRC operated about 45 miles of track in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee. The railroad started near Warner Park and made its way several miles past the East Tennessee, Virginia line ending at Boyce Station.

It was controlled by the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, and its property was conveyed to that company in 1946. It was operated and financed by the AGSRR.

The Belt Line continued in service after it was acquired by Southern Railway, but it ran for only a few years in the late 1880s and the early 1890s. Today, the only visible tracks still in place can be seen at the start of the line at EPB yards across from Warner Park and a small section near Bachman Street. The nearby Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum still uses the at-grade route of the East Tennessee line as a moving museum.

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