West Point Route

{{Short description|Railroad in the Southern United States}} {{Use American English|date=June 2025}} The '''West Point Route''' was actually a nickname used in the early 20th century for the joint operations of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad and the Western Railway of Alabama.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oldalabamarails.org/history2.html |title=Western Railway of Alabama (Old Alabama Rails) |access-date=2009-05-28 |archive-date=2009-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212195747/http://oldalabamarails.org/history2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.railga.com/wra.html |title=Georgia Railroad History Index |access-date=2009-05-28 |archive-date=2010-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816122210/http://www.railga.com/wra.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The name refers to the city of West Point, Georgia, where the two railroads met.

Until the 1960s, the route carried Southern Railway passenger trains, such as the ''Crescent'' and the ''Piedmont Limited'' on New York to New Orleans service.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The West Point Route |journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=97 |issue=7 |date=December 1964}}</ref> By the latter 1960s, the ''Crescent'' was the only remaining passenger train. In 1970, the ''Crescent'' was rerouted on its present-day more northwestern route, through Birmingham.

Major station stops, southwest from Atlanta's Terminal Station were in Georgia: Newman, LaGrange, West Point, in Alabama: Opelika, Auburn, Chehaw and Montgomery. Coach-only trains made additional station stops.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The West Point Route |journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=88 |issue=4 |date=September 1955}}</ref> Passenger trains continued west beyond Montgomery to Mobile and New Orleans on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.<ref>Southern Railway timetable, 1952, Tables A, B, C https://streamlinermemories.info/South/SOU52TT.pdf</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:West Point Route}} Category:Defunct Alabama railroads Category:Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads