Alabama railroads of the past collection

This collection contains materials related to several railroads, primarily the Mobile and Alabama Grand Trunk Railroad Company, the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad, the Mobile & Girard Railroad Company, and the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.

The Mobile & Alabama Grand Trunk Railroad Company was chartered in February 1866 to build a railroad stretching north from Mobile that would connect with major railroads already existing along the route. By 1872, the company had laid only sixty miles of the proposed 270 miles of track. The company was foreclosed and sold in May 1883.

The Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad Company was incorporated in February 1850 to lay rails from Cahawba to Uniontown. The company fell into financial hardship after several of its depots were destroyed during the Civil War and the value of the company's Confederate bonds plummeted. In 1872, the company was purchased by a group of bondholders and renamed the Alabama Central Railroad Company. The company became a part of the East Tennessee, Virginia, & Georgia Railroad in 1882.

The Mobile & Girard Railroad Company was founded in January 1845 by Samuel G. Ingersoll and John Goodwin. According to its charter, the first Girard Railroad Company was permitted to lay seven miles of track near Girard in Russell County to transfer equipment to and from Ingersoll's sawmill. A second company, also called the Girard Railroad Company, was established in 1846. This company was authorized to build lines between Girard and Mobile Bay or connect the line to a railroad between Montgomery and West Point. The railroad continued to grow, uniting with the Eufaula & Mobile Railroad Company in 1849 and further expanding into Eufaula, Montgomery, and Mobile. In 1854, the company's name was changed to the Mobile & Girard Railroad Company. In June 1886, the company was leased to the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, and the railways were managed by the Central of Georgia Railway Company.

Chartered in 1847, the Atlanta & LaGrange Railroad was renamed the Atlanta and West Point Railroad in 1857. The rail line stretched eighty miles from East Point, near Atlanta, to West Point and LaGrange. The Georgia railway company was operated by the same managers as the Western Railway of Alabama. In 1903, the two railway companies combined, operating the West Point Route together. The Atlanta & West Point Railroad became a part of the Seaboard System Railroad in 1983.

Sources: "Atlanta and West Point Railroad," RailGa.com, http://railga.com/atlwp.html. Owen, Thomas McAdory and Marie Bankhead Owen. History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography.