Birmingham Mineral Railroad

Birmingham Mineral Railroad. . In 1884, when Birmingham was scarcely a decade old, the L&N Railroad laid the first tracks for its mineral railroad, to begin hauling ore from Red Mountain mines to furnaces, mills, and rail connections in Jones Valley. , By the early 1900s, more than 300 miles of tracks ran through six Alabama counties, delivering materials for industrial iron and steel production throughout the Birmingham area. , [Inset] , The Vulcan-BMRR Connection , In 1936, train cars used Birmingham Mineral Railroad tracks to bring the 21 pieces of the Vulcan statue to Red Mountain, where the new Vulcan Park was taking shape. Coincidentally, three decades earlier, the train that brought the statue home from the St. Louis World's Fair had unloaded it near here, before Vulcan went to the Alabama State Fairgrounds. , [Captions] , Map of the Birmingham Mineral District , Vulcan Trail follows a two-mile stretch of the roadbed of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad's Red Gap Branch. , Map of the Birmingham-Bessemer Terminal Area Co-ordinating Committee, 1935, According to an 1890 newspaper report, each week the railroad handled 4,000 cars loaded with coal, ore, limestone, and pig iron. That's more than 700 cars rumbling over its tracks every day! , Photo by Mall Lawson, courtesy of Marvin Clemons, Jr.