I am late to this forum topic (again) but just today am mailing a section of U-Rail from the Wilmington & Weldon RR to my friend and fellow researcher Dave Bright. Dave is the creator and owner of the CSA RR website mentioned in one of the most recent postings in this thread. FWIW, Dave is the "New" Black in terms of CS RR resources. His knowledge & archives are unsurpassed on the subject.

Selma was definitely the southern terminus of that line (Alabama & Tennessee Rivers RR) during the war. The line to the west was the "Selma & Meridian" or "Alabama & Mississippi" line depending upon whose lable you wish to use. At the start of the war it ran from Selma to Uniontown - 30 miles due west. Only when the "Memphis and Charleston" line (the only continuous track line connecting the CS Atlantic to the CS Mississippi River) was severed in April of '62 did the CS government get off their butts and authorize (June 1862) the completion of that line to Demopolis/Tombigbee which was completed in december of that year. From that terminus material was loaded onto a steam barge and transported 4 1/2 miles downstream to McDowells Bluff where it was hauled up to a spur of the Mobile and Ohio line to go wherever. The story of getting materials back and forth across the Georgia-Alabama border (westward) into the "Trans-Chattahootchee" is an object lesson in logistics and systems management. I go into some detail in that regard in my book on Selma during the war. The guage changes, city gaps, route limits, ferry links, rail shortages, engine and wheel deterioration, etc. all contributed to a truly sad part of the story of our eventual defeat.

Bill Lockridge
Selma Research Project