I have a brass switch key with the initials A & WP. Was A & WP originally independent? When purchased and by whom?

-- Harry Brill (harrybrill@aol.com), March 06, 2000

Answers

I own an Atlanta & West Point railroad gun which appeared in the July issue of the Gun Report Magazine. The gun is an 1851 dated Robbins & Lawrence Mississippi Rifle. We have had great response concerning its probable history, we would appreciate any additional forth coming information regarding the gun or the railroad.

-- Gary Edwards (pedwards209@aol.com), September 29, 2001.

The Georgia Railroad & Banking Company owned about 46% of the stock of the Atlanta & West Point Rail Road from about the 1850's. (The company was chartered as the Atlanta & LaGrange Rail Road in 1847, the name was changed ten years later.)

Voting rights to this stock passed to jointly to the Central Rail Road & Banking Company of Georgia and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad with the lease of the Georgia Railroad in 1881. The Atlantic Coast Line acquired the Central's one-half interest in the lease in 1899.

While the lessees owned voting rights to about 46% of the stock, this did not constitute an absolute majority and the A&WP was operated on a more-or-less independent basis until the mid-to-late 1960's. The fact that until 1944, the Central of Georgia held a 50% stake in the Western Railway of Alabama, which was operated jointly with the A&WP, also had a large influence in keeping the A&WP at least semi- autonomous. With the sale of the Central's stock in 1944 and the acquisition of additional shares by the Georgia Road's lessees, the A&WP came more and more into the sphere of influence of the ACl (SCL) and L&N and was ultimately merged into the Seaboard System Railroad on January 1, 1983.

-- Robert H. Hanson (RHanson669@aol.com), March 07, 2000.

The Atlanta & West Point R.R. was controlled by the ACL/L&N from about 1900, but operated separately. It was allied with the Western of Alabama and Georgia R.R.s. In the merger mania of the 1980's, these three railroad's became first part of the "Family Lines"(SCL/L&N) and in August 1986 was merged into CSX when SCL/L&N merged with C&O/B&O.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), March 07, 2000.