Atlanta and West Point Railroad
standard gauge | |
Previous gauge | originally built as 5 ft (1,524 mm) and changed to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886[1] |
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The Atlanta and West Point Rail Road (
In the late 20th century restructuring, through the
In 1967 A&WP reported 232 million revenue ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles on 93 miles (150 km) of road operated.
History
The AWP and the
The CofG sold its interest in 1944. The lines eventually fell under the control of the
The former AWP line remains in full service today, although passenger service ended on January 7, 1970.[citation needed] This was 16 months before Amtrak took over most of the nation's long-distance passenger trains. (The Central of Georgia's Man o' War continued to operate for several more months over the A&WP rail line.) The Atlanta & West Point name ended in June 1983, when the railroad company was absorbed by the Seaboard System.
One of AWP's most notable steam locomotives, heavy Pacific AWP 290, survived and was restored to operational status in 1989. The 290 pulled steam excursions around Atlanta from 1989 to 1992 for the "New Georgia Railroad," including a special excursion from Atlanta to Montgomery along the original West Point Route.
List of stations
These stations existed as of 1867.
Name | Miles | Kilometers | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
East Point | 7 | 11 | |
Fairburn | 19 | 31 | |
Palmetto | 25 | 40 | completed on March 17, 1851 |
Powells | 33 | 53 | |
Newnan | 39 | 63 | completed on September 9, 1851 |
Grantville | 51 | 82 | completed on June 1, 1852 |
Hogansville | 58 | 93 | |
LaGrange | 71 | 114 | completed in February, 1853 |
Long Cane | 80 | 130 | Off Long Cane Road |
West Point | 86 | 138 | completed on May 15, 1854 |
Trains departed from Atlanta at 12:15PM and arrived there at 8:37AM. West Point was the connecting point further west via the Montgomery and West Point Railroad.
See also
- Lemuel P. Grant
- Atlanta and West Point 290
References
- ^ "The Days They Changed the Gauge".
- ^ "Atlanta & West Point". Confederate Railroads. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ a b Middleton, Smerk & Diehl 2007.
- Middleton, William D.; Smerk, George M.; Diehl, Roberta L., eds. (2007). Encyclopedia of North American Railroads. Indiana University Press. pp. 153–54.
- Hanson, Robert H. (2007). The West Point Route: The Atlanta & West Point Rail Road and The Western Railway of Alabama (1st ed.). TLC Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9766201-4-3.
External links
- Railga.com
- Railroads and the Battle of West Point
- Old Alabama Rails — West Point Route
- Atlanta and West Point Railroad, Passenger Depot, Newnan, Georgia, one of many drawings related to the Atlanta and West Point Railroad in the Georgia State Archives.
- "Steam Locomotion at High Tide!" historical marker, Georgia Info