Gibbs Community, by Lynn Laster.  Gibbs community was once called Paducah Junction This information was passed on to me by my mother and grandparents, Joseph and Annie Lynn, who lived in Gibbs. Gibbs is now incorporated into Union City. Lynn’s grandfather, Joseph Lynn, served as an Illinois Central railroad station master at Gibbs and also in Rives (not simultaneously). Gibbs was the point that the IC and NC&StL railroads crossed. This branch of the NC & StL (later L&N) ran between Bruceton and Hickman, KY serving Huntington, McKenzie, Dresden, Martin, Union City, and many other places in between. It was built prior to the Civil War.

The IC railroad, built after the Civil War, became known as Paducah Junction at point it crossed the NC & StL. Here, passengers changed from one railroad to the other and often remained overnight in the junction hotel to catch the next available train. The old hotel building was still standing until the 1950s. Paducah Junction later became Gibbs after General Gibbs (if I recall correctly, he was the State of TN attorney general) who had financial interest in the new IC railroad. The IC became the main railroad artery from Chicago to New Orleans. During WWII the traffic was heavy was on this double track system and it was often hard to cross the tracks night or day. My grandfather’s farm at Gibbs was split by the IC and bordered by the NC&StL, Highway 22 and the North Fork Obion River.

Let me relate a true story. During WWII my parents, sister, and I lived in Dresden. Many summer mornings, I got up, rode my bicycle to the railroad station in Dresden and caught the train to Gibbs. I bought a ticket for 20 cents, checked my bicycle as luggage in the baggage car, climbed on board one of the two passenger cars and rode to Gibbs. When there, I’d remove my bicycle from the baggage car and ride to my grandparents house. Later in the afternoon when the train made the return trip from Hickman, Ky to Bruceton, I reversed the process and went back home to Dresden. A one way trip took well over an hour to go 20 miles. The train would stop along the way in places like Raulston, Martin, Gardner, Terrell, Shofner, and places in between if you asked the conductor. The small steam engine was reminiscent of a late 1800’s variety. The fireman actually had to shovel the coal from the tender car. Sometimes the train stopped at a water tower to replenish water used in making steam. In the summer the windows in the passenger cars had to be open. There was no air conditioning. You could often smell the coal smoke from the little engine and would get showers of cinders as you rode along. The conductor would caution you not to lean out the open windows. If you did the price might be a weed or tree branch slapping you in the face.

Today the old NC & StL tracks have been removed. Between Martin and the North Fork Obion River going toward Union City, the new Highway 22 was built on this old NC & StL railroad bed in the 1980s. As I ride down this new modern four lane limited access highway in my fine automobile, I can’t help but recall and visualize those train rides along the same path over fifty years ago.

Contributed by Lynn Laster

Jane Powell remembers endless miles of troop trains on the IC where the tracks paralleled old Highway 51 between Ripley and Troy TN. Often cattle cars were used, or cars with horizontal boards with a space between big enough for the men to stick their arms out and wave. They may have been prisoners of war…