Early traffic on this line consisted mostly of passenger, mail, and package trains with two or three cars of general merchandise. Houston County's rich natural resources, including wood products, limestone, and coal shipped from Guthrie and Russellville, Kentucky to points beyond Memphis, made it necessary to cut trains into shorter segments at Erin and Stewart to get over Tennessee Ridge Hill. Solid freight trains crossed Tennessee Ridge in two runs, using a Hill Helper, Pusher, or Goat at Erin to push trains from both Erin and Stewart, which in turn required a turntable at Erin so the engine could be turned to face the proper direction. The hill engine stayed busy with extra coal trains, through freights, and ten passenger trains. Until 1930, an average of 24 trains a day passed through Erin, but traffic dropped sharply during the Depression years from 1930 through 1940. During World War II, traffic increased again and tonnage exceeded earlier levels, with six fully loaded passenger trains per day, six fast freights per day, and about ten extra trains per day, for an average of 22 daily trains. Larger and more powerful locomotives later allowed more cars to be handled. During construction of the railroad through Erin, the crews were mostly Irish immigrants, and local tradition holds that after a weekend gathering and fight, one man remarked on the area's resemblance to Ireland by saying "Erin go Braugh," after which Hollister's Field came to be called Erin.