In 1897, the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company announced plans to build a line from Artesia, Mississippi, through Pickens County to Tuscaloosa and on to Montgomery. Leading citizens in Carrollton tried to persuade the company to route the line through the county seat, but Mobile & Ohio officials chose a route through Reform and Gordo to ensure faster mail service required by the U.S. postal service. Carrollton residents, led by W.G. Robertson, Judge O.L. McKinstry, E.R. Calhoun, and M.L. Stansel, then organized a corporation to build a railroad from Carrollton to Reform to connect with the Mobile & Ohio. Known as the Carrollton Short Line, the track was eventually completed by Tuscaloosa entrepreneur John Taylor Cochrane, who brought the first train into Carrollton in 1902. The depot stood on this site. Cochrane steadily built the line southward, establishing the town of Aliceville, named for his wife, Alyce Searcy, along its route, and the line eventually extended to Mobile. Soon rechristened the Alabama, Tennessee & Northern Railroad, Cochrane’s line sparked a social and economic boom for Carrollton and southwest Alabama. Vast timber holdings were opened by dummy lines connecting to the Carrollton Short Line, creating many jobs and boosting the local economy. The line operated until June 29, 1976, when the last train made its run.