Sunday, August 9, 2020

What's in a name?



The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was created by the merger in 1940 of the Mobile and Ohio RR and the Gulf, Mobile and Northern. A further acquisition in 1947 of the Alton Railway made a single system from Chicago to the Gulf at Mobile and New Orleans. Looking at the track map, they seem to have missed Ohio by about 250 miles. 
 As the 1951 photo above hints, the new railway was quick to convert from steam to diesel power, having totally phased out steam by 1949 with the acquisition of 244 diesel locomotives between 1943 and '49.
The railway merged with the Illinois Central in 1972, which was then bought up by Canadian National in 1998.

Robert G Lewis, A Handbook of American Railroads, Simmons and Boardman, 1951
 

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4 comments:

  1. Steve HoshelAugust 11, 2020 at 10:46 PM

    Well, the railroads did have to cross the Ohio River to enter the State of Illinois.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mister GAugust 12, 2020 at 10:03 PM

    Hmmmmm. Maybe... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Robert BurnhamAugust 18, 2020 at 5:23 PM

    ....and this is a good occasion for this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1lqEQFVUo

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mister GAugust 18, 2020 at 8:24 PM

    Thanks for that, good song.

    ReplyDelete