US routes formerly serving Talladega, Alabama

[bugo]

In the past, Talladega, Alabama has been served by US routes but is no longer on the system. The road from Pell City to Sylacauga via Talladega has had several route designations. The 1926 Alabama highway map shows the road, from north to south, as US 78-AL 54-AL 8-AL 1. AL 1 is also shown as AL 11 on several maps in this era. In 1931 Talladega gets its first US route, US 241. The 1931 map shows US 241 following AL 1 so the Pell City-Sylacauga stretch was numbered, from north to south, US 78-AL 54-US 241. The numbering was slightly modified on the 1941 map: US 78-AL 102-AL 48-US 241.

US 231 first appears on the 1953 map, on the current route between Pell City and Sylacauga through Harpersville along then AL 25 and AL 91 (AL 91 is now US 280) with US 241 running through Talladega for one final year.  The 1954 map shows US 231 rerouted to follow the Pell City-Sylacauga route that goes through Talladega while US 241 is gone and the road through Harpersville reverts to AL 25-US 280. Things get strange in 1955...

On the 1955 Alabama highway map, US 231 is shown along two different parallel routes between Pell City and Sylacauga: one US 231 running along today's US 231 through Harpersville and another US 231 going through Talladega along today's US 78-AL 77-AL 21. The map doesn't show either US 231 as an alternate or other bannered route, just plain old US 231. This setup lasted until at least 1970 as it is shown on the 1970 map but not the 1972. I don't have access to a 1971 Alabama official (does anybody?) so I can't pinpoint the date any closer at this time. The 1972 map shows mainline US 231 following the route through Harpersville while the route through Talladega is shown as Alt US 231. On the 1979-1980 map Alt US 231 is gone, replaced by (north to south) US 78-AL 77-AL 21. Talladega has not been served by the US highway system since.

My main questions revolve around the split alignments of US 231 in place from circa 1955 to 1970. Were they both signed as mainline US 231 or was one of them an alternate?

[Mapmikey]

1956 and 1961 Rand McN show the route through Talladega as 231 ALT.

County maps in the 1960s show both legs as mainline 231.

The state maps showing both as mainline 231 is consistent with how Alabama treated ALT routes on their maps.  The 1951 map shows US 11 and US 11 ALT both as mainline 11 south of Gadsden as well as the 1965 map showing 72 and 72 ALT as just 72.

[bugo]

If you want to see these Alabama state highway maps they are posted at this URL:

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/stateroads/index.html

I advise clicking "Plugin" instead of "JPEG" because the JPEG interface is awful. They really need to remove it. The plugin works so much better and is so much faster.