Birmingham
29 July 2017
opening reception on Sunday,
23 April, 6-8 pm
Image:
AERIAL OVERVIEW, LOOKING WEST, WITH BEE HIVE COKE OVENS IN FORESTED OVERGROWTH (BOTTOM LEFT), COKE TAILINGS PILE (BOTTOM RIGHT THROUGH CENTER TOP LEFT), FORMER BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN RAILWAY SHOPS BUILDING (TOP RIGHT). CONVICT CEMETERY IS JUST WEST OF THE TAILINGS PILE (TOP LEFT IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH). - Pratt Coal & Coke Company, Pratt Mines, Convict Cemetery, Bounded by First Street, Avenue G, Third Place & Birmingham Southern Railroad, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Engineering Record, 1993 (HAER ALA,37-BIRM,38C-1).
Norfolk Southern (Alabama), 2017
Steel relay rail
18 x 371 x 101.3 cm
Rental
Relay rail is rail that has been removed from its original line and resold. Relay rail was first sold by railroad companies to mining companies for pit railways. Steel rail is made using coal and iron ore.
In the late 1860s, the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad; the Georgia and Alabama Railroad; the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad; and the Macon and Brunswick Railroad were constructed using convict lease labor. By 1895 all of these lines had been consolidated into Southern Railway, which built hubs in Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, allowing it to transport coal and iron ore throughout the Southeast. In 1982, Southern Railway merged with Norfolk and Western Railway to create Norfolk Southern. This Norfolk Southern relay rail was used in the Alabama section of the system.