The Autauga Northern Railroad is a shortline operating between Maplesville, Alabama and a plant of the

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

Company near

Prattville, Alabama Prattville is a city located within both Autauga and Elmore counties in the State of Alabama but serves as the county seat of Autauga County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 37,781. Nicknamed "The Fountain City" due to t ...

, . This trackage is leased from

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

and was originally operated by the Mobile & Ohio,

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was a Class I railroad in the central United States whose primary routes extended from Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as Chicago, Illinois. From its two ...

(GM&O), and

Illinois Central Gulf The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

railroads as part of their line between

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

and

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population o ...

. In addition, Autauga Northern uses of trackage rights over

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

, also ex-GM&O, to gain access into Montgomery. The lease from Norfolk Southern was approved in February 2011, and operations began in April 2011 as part of

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco was composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is t ...

. Watco undertook a $2.39 million refurbishment of the railway after beginning operations to upgrade track to handle 25 mile-per-hour speeds. The railroad operates six days a week under Watco control, moving about 9,000 carloads per year.

References

{{US Class III - Alabama Alabama railroads Watco Railway companies established in 2011 Spin-offs of the Norfolk Southern Railway 2011 establishments in Alabama