The TAG trail, generally always leads through the files or the publications of connecting railroads, because Southern Railway destroyed all TAG corporate records. Case in point, I just received this Louisville & Nashville employee magazine in the mail today. I found this article most interesting. Note that the author states that TAG is the only mainline railroad entering Gadsden. On the surface this would seem to be a slight to the L&Ns own route through Gadsden. I would at least consider it a secondary mainline, not unlike the CofG line through my hometown of Summerville, Georgia. As interesting as the NC&StL to Gadsden is, with it¡¯s Tennessee River ferry component, I guess it would not be mainline. The rickety Southern branch from Rome through Gadsden to Attalla is by no means main line. My wife¡¯s grandparents would put my dad-in-law and his sister on the Southern mixed train in Rome - by themselves - when they were small and send them to see kin in Attalla My father-in-law called the Southern mixed ¡°the Little Jonny¡± I have never heard it referred to by that name by Southern historians. Another thing that stands out in this article is the picture of the locomotive 301 Glistening with fresh paint - at this point new to TAG - and black as tar. Most photos of these 300 series engines are post WW2, near the end of their existence. They always sported white wheel rims and running boards and drive rods. When the engine was clean, this really popped. I don¡¯t recall ever seeing a 300 series engine jet black. I also note what appears to be a caboose in the background. Little is known about TAG caboose prior to 1938.
At any rate, I am away from my desktop and scanner. This is a cropped phone snap. In a week or two I¡¯ll have to go into the group homepage and clean out older files. We have a free group and therefore limited data storage. If there is anything on here you want, download it soon.
At some point I plan on either updating the group to paid or crafting a webpage and restore the TAG Society as online only. With my father-in-law and my folks getting older my free time for typesetting and doing all the things needed to get out a printed newsletter just aren¡¯t possible right now.
Warren
Warren Stephens
