Birmingham Rails: The Last Golden Era; From World War II to Amtrack (review)

A P R I L 2 0 0 8 143 pher argues that Forsyth was not contradicting his principles by his hasty switch. According to Burnett, throughout the 1850s “Forsyth presented a consistent stance on the issue of disunion” (p. 124). The author points out that Forsyth always had warned that hostile control of the presidency would be a reason for secession. On the above point, a cynical reviewer cannot help but question Forsyth’s motives more closely. While granting that Forsyth would be concerned, quite rightly, about the South’s loss of power and influence, would he not also feel considerable remorse about his own diminished position? Would he not regret, quite bitterly, the demise of the patronage that he had received from the federal government for approximately twenty-five years? And might he not plan to seek it again, early on, from a new constituency? In examining Forsyth’s extensive and wide-ranging career, Burnett has detailed quite carefully Forsyth’s participation in the Mexican War, his service as minister to Mexico, his struggles in the confused Democratic nominating conventions of 1860, and his frustrations on the commission that Jefferson Davis appointed to negotiate friendly relations between the United States and the Confederacy. In none of these endeavors did Forsyth cover himself with glory. Furthermore, he seems to have given impractical advice to Stephen A. Douglas in his political campaign of 1860 and to Braxton Bragg in his military campaign in Kentucky in 1862. At the beginning of the Reconstruction era, Forsyth had the reputation of being a southern moderate, but in his subsequent editorials in the Mobile Register he proved to be very immoderate indeed. Lonnie Burnett has written a first rate biography of John Forsyth, but, in the eyes of this skeptical reviewer, Forsyth does not emerge as a first rate individual. Nonetheless, his long involvement in so many aspects of state and national affairs makes this book a useful reference work for citizens of Mobile (and Columbus, Georgia), historians of Alabama, and the state’s libraries. RALPH DRAUGHON JR. Alabama Historical Commission Birmingham Rails: The Last Golden Era; From World War II to Amtrack. By Marvin Clemons and Lyle Key. Birmingham: Red Mountain Press, 2007. ix, 271 pp. $59.95. ISBN 978-0-615-14353-8. This reviewer’s first impression of Birmingham Rails was that it was just another heavily illustrated coffee-table book designed for railroad buffs T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 144 interested in the last days of steam. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is a well-balanced history of the nine major railroads that served the Magic City from its founding to the beginning of the diesel era, interlaced with a close look at the numerous small lines that worked the nearby coal fields. The authors’ passion for their subject sets the volume apart from the mundane eye-candy of many such books. Clemons and Key are long-time friends and rail fans from Birmingham who began chasing steam locomotives in their teens. They turned their hobby into careers; working for railroads that gave them a more balanced and professional approach to their subject. But their enthusiasm for the railroads around the city always shows through in their book. Birmingham was a latecomer to the industrial age. Founded in 1871 at the intersection of two wobbly through-railways, it developed to exploit the nearby iron ore deposits, coal seams, and limestone to become a major iron and steel producer. It was a New South boomtown and railway companies rapidly pushed to tap its traffic. The authors present short histories of the Atlantic Coast Line, the Central of Georgia, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, the L & N, the Frisco, the Seaboard Air Line, the Southern, and the little Birmingham Southern. After each, they present a portfolio of photographs showing everything from their best passenger varnish to switching operations. Thomas Lawson Jr., added a separate chapter on Birmingham’s short line railroads that gives a history of each, a compilation of their rolling stock, and their fates. Some really odd locomotives worked those lines. The book’s photographs, many of...