The Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad is a

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

in northern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and southern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. Opened in 1908, it has undergone several

corporate reorganization Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...

s, but has remained independent of larger carriers. In 2004, paper producer

Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and r ...

sold the company to shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Traffic generally consists of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

forest product A forest product is any material derived from forestry for direct consumption or commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or fodder for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant product of forests, is used for many purposes, such as wood fuel (e.g. in for ...

s, and chemicals. The AL&M runs north from

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

, on the

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and ...

's Meridian Speedway, through Bastrop to Crossett, Arkansas, generally paralleling U.S. Routes 165 and

425 __NOTOC__ Year 425 ( CDXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Valentinianus (or, less frequently, year ...

. At Crossett, the AL&M interchanges with the affiliated Fordyce and Princeton Railroad, which hauls its cars to the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

at Fordyce. A branch from Rolfe Junction to

Hamburg, Arkansas Hamburg is a city and county seat of Ashley County, Arkansas, Ashley County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,857 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is best known for being the home town of NBA legend Scottie Pippen. G ...

, was abandoned in 1920, with the grade reused for a

county road A county highway (also county road or county route; usually abbreviated CH or CR) is a road in the United States and in the Canadian province of Ontario that is designated and/or maintained by the County (United States), county highway departme ...

; in 2006 the AL&M leased a segment of line in Bastrop from the Union Pacific Railroad.

History

The Arkansas, Louisiana and Gulf Railway (AL&G) was incorporated in July 1906 to connect Monroe with Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The latter city was never reached, and the line as opened in October 1908 ended at Hamburg and Crossett. It entered

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

in May 1913, and in December 1914 the newly organized Arkansas, Louisiana and Gulf ''Railroad'' leased both the Arkansas, Louisiana and Gulf ''Railway'' and the Crossett- Monticello Ashley, Drew and Northern Railway (AD&N), the latter owned by the Crossett Lumber Company. Alfred Cowles of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

bought the AL&G's property at

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

in September 1915, and in November the reorganized Arkansas and Louisiana Midland Railway (A&LM) acquired the Monroe-Crossett line, but the branch to Hamburg remained with Cowles. The A&LM took over the AL&G Railroad's lease of the AD&N, and leased the Hamburg line.

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

, 135 I.C.C. 424 (1928): Valuation Docket No. 606, Arkansas & Louisiana Midland Railway Company et al. Steam operations on the line ended by 1960. The A&LM was not successful, and entered receivership in February 1920, terminating the AD&N lease in March. Operations north of Bastrop were suspended in May, and the property was sold in July and conveyed in August to the new Arkansas and Louisiana Missouri Railway. The

approved permanent abandonment of the Hamburg branch, now a county road, and resumption of operation to Crossett. The new AL&M also obtained trackage rights over the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

from Bastrop to Dollar Junction and

Huttig, Arkansas Huttig is a city in Union County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 597 at the 2010 census. Geography Huttig is located at (33.038999, -92.183797). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which ...

, the two ends of the Louisiana and Pine Bluff Railway. The AL&M leased the latter company, which provided access to a

saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...

, until its dissolution in 1979. The current name was adopted in September 1991, when Georgia-Pacific organized the Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad to purchase the A&LM. The AD&N, then owned by Georgia-Pacific as successor to the Crossett Lumber Company, was abandoned in August 1995, and Genesee & Wyoming Inc. purchased several of Georgia-Pacific's railroads, including the AL&M, in January 2004. In 2006, the AL&M leased from the

of line at Bastrop, which had previously been owned by the

References

External links

Arkansas Louisiana & Mississippi Railroad Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkansas Louisiana Mississippi Railroad Arkansas railroads Louisiana railroads Genesee & Wyoming Railway companies established in 1991 1991 establishments in the United States Standard gauge railways in the United States