Mobile and Ohio Railroad

Mobile and Ohio Railroad
	standard gauge
Previous gauge	,; 5 ft (1,524 mm) and converted to; 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad was a

Southern U.S. The M&O was chartered in January and February 1848 by the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It was planned to span the distance between the seaport of Mobile, Alabama and the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois.^[2] On September 13, 1940, it was merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad to form the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad.^[3]

At the end of 1925 M&O operated 1,161 miles (1,868 km) of road and 1,536 miles (2,472 km) of track; that year it reported 1785 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 49 million passenger-miles.

History

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad was conceived after hard times in Mobile following the

steamboats were then used to connect with the Illinois Central Railroad at Cairo.^[2]

1848 map showing the planned route of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

The start of the

receivership in 1875 and did not emerge until eight years later.^[2]

By 1870 the operators had seen the need to complete the line all the way to Cairo and make it the northern terminus instead of Columbus, but financial problems stood in the way. Finally on May 1, 1882, the extension to Cairo was opened. The company then acquired the

St. Louis, Missouri.^[2]

In 1896 the company decided to build a line from its Columbus, Mississippi, terminal toward Florida. On June 30, 1898, the Tuscaloosa to Montgomery line opened in Alabama, along with two short branch lines. That same year they decided to build a 39-mile (63 km) line from Mobile to Alabama Port and Bayou La Batre, naming it the Mobile and Bay Shore Railway. It was completed in 1899.^[2]

The M&O's stockholders and bondholders accepted a

Clayton Antitrust Act by using the M&O for its own profit at the expense of the M&O, though the case was dropped in 1933. Southern sold its M&O bonds in 1940 to the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad. The GM&N was then combined with the M&O to form the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad.^[2]