AGR EMD GP40 No. 4028
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Reporting mark | AGR |
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Locale | Alabama, Florida and Mississippi |
Dates of operation | 1997 | –
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
Length | 348 miles (560 km) |
Headquarters | Monroeville, Alabama |
Website | Official website |
The Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway (reporting mark AGR) is a Class II railroad owned by Genesee & Wyoming. It operates 348 miles (560 km) of track from the Pensacola, Florida export terminals, west of downtown, north to Columbus, Mississippi, with trackage rights along BNSF Railway to Amory, Mississippi. A branch uses trackage rights along Norfolk Southern from Kimbrough, Alabama west and south to Mobile, Alabama, with separate trackage at the end of the line in Mobile.
The current AGR is composed of numerous lines built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which were gradually consolidated into a system that was purchased by the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway and remained under that railroad or its successor's control until 1997, when it was spun off into an independent company.
The earliest ancestor of the AGR was the Pensacola and Mobile Railroad and Manufacturing Company, which in 1861 constructed 5 miles (8.0 km) miles of track between Muscogee, Florida and Cantonment, Florida. This line was dismantled by Confederate forces during the Civil War so that the iron rails could be used elsewhere. The railroad was not rebuilt until 1877. In 1874, the company took control of the Pensacola and Perdido Railroad, which ran west from Pensacola about five miles to a lumber mill at Millview, Florida on Perdido Bay. In 1892, the system merged with the Pensacola, Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, which connected the Millview and Muscogee branches. Shortly thereafter, the railroad was renamed the Gulf Ports Terminal Railway.