Alabama Great Southern Railroad

Alabama Great Southern Railroad

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Railroad transportation
Founded	1877
Founder	Emile Erlanger and Company
Headquarters	Chattanooga, Tennessee , United States
Area served	Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee
Products	Freight rail transport
Parent	Norfolk Southern Corporation

The Alabama Great Southern Railroad (AGS) operates throughout Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. As a functioning subsidiary under the umbrella of the Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS), AGS runs in a southwest direction from Chattanooga, TN, linking with NS-owned Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway, and extends to New Orleans, LA. Its route includes major hubs such as Birmingham, AL and Meridian, MS. Additionally, the company maintains nearly a 30% ownership in the Meridian-Shreveport, LA Meridian Speedway, which is controlled by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, bolstering its strategic influence in the region.

In 1970, AGS recorded 3.854 billion net ton-miles of revenue freight while managing 528 miles of road and 1,084 miles of track, not counting its Class II subsidiary, the Louisiana Southern Railway. This operational footprint highlights its considerable market presence and its vital role within Norfolk Southern's larger network.

History

The earliest ancestor of AGS was the Wills Valley Railroad, established by Alabama charter in 1852 with the goal of extending northeastward to the Georgia border. By 1854, Georgia and Tennessee had authorized the railroad’s continuation to connect with the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Concurrently, the North East and South West Alabama Railroad was chartered across Alabama and Mississippi between 1853 and 1854 to construct a line from Meridian, Mississippi, passing through important Alabama cities en route to Knoxville, Tennessee. Both railroads benefited from federal land grants issued in 1856 and assigned by Alabama in 1858, aiding their interstate construction efforts.

Construction commenced from their respective endpoints outside Alabama: the Wills Valley line had linked Nashville and Chattanooga by December 1860, while the North East and South West reached York, Alabama by that year and was leased to the Alabama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad. After the Civil War, Boston financiers led by John C. Stanton combined these companies into the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad during 1868-71, forming a diagonal rail corridor across Alabama. Financial troubles resulted in Alabama seizing ownership in 1871; subsequently, it was reorganized as the Alabama Great Southern Railroad by Emile Erlanger and Company in 1877.

Erlanger created an English holding company named Alabama Great Southern Railway Company, Limited, which acquired control of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway in 1881, thereby extending AGS’s northern reach to Cincinnati. Another English corporation merged AGS assets with several regional lines. By 1890, control passed to the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway along with the Richmond and Danville Railroad—both eventually integrated into Southern Railway. Key acquisitions included the Gadsden and Attalla Railroad in 1892 and a fifty percent interest in the Woodstock and Blocton Railway in 1909, broadening AGS’s regional access.

In 1914, AGS established the Wauhatchie Extension Railway to connect Wauhatchie with a Southern subsidiary near Lookout Mountain; completed by 1917, this provided an alternative route into Chattanooga through trackage rights and leases. The railroad fully phased out steam locomotives by 1954. In 1969, Southern Railway strengthened its position by merging the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad into AGS. Further consolidation took place in August 1993 when AGS absorbed entities including the Chattanooga Terminal Railway, Louisiana Southern Railway, and New Orleans Terminal Company.

These calculated mergers and expansions demonstrate AGS’s ongoing strategy of unifying regional railroads to enhance market penetration across critical southeastern U.S. corridors within the expansive Southern Railway framework.

Passenger trains

Southern Railway provided multiple passenger routes across the Alabama Great Southern Railroad (AGS) lines. Prominent services included the Queen and Crescent Limited until 1949, the Birmingham Special operating between Chattanooga and Birmingham until 1970, and the Pelican, which covered the entire stretch until its end in 1970. Additionally, the Southerner served areas southwest of Birmingham until it was discontinued in 1970. Presently, Amtrak's Crescent operates through the region southwest of Birmingham.