Mobile & Ohio Railroad: History, Map, Timetable

Published: October 9, 2026

The Mobile & Ohio was the older of the two southern railroads that became the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Chartered early in 1848, it built north from Mobile and reached Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River, on April 22, 1861. A bridge into Cairo, Illinois, followed in May 1882. St. Louis came in 1886, by lease of a three-foot coal road. On September 13, 1940, the property and the Gulf, Mobile & Northern became one company.

A publicity photo of Mobile & Ohio 4-6-2 #269 in a scene probably taken around 1926 soon after the Pacific was acquired from Baldwin. It was part of a group of ten that were nearly identical to USRA Light Pacifics, save for the cab roof in which the USRA version had a deeper curve.

In the March 1940 Official Guide the Mobile & Ohio was in receivership and listed 1,180.45 miles. The map below is that railroad, Rand McNally's sheet of December 1938. The western neighbor has its own page. The merged company, its diesels, and the 1952 maps are the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio.

Rand McNally map of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and connections, December 1938

Rand McNally's map of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad and connections, dated December 1938. The heavy line is Mobile to Cairo and St. Louis, with the Montgomery branch. The sheet was carried in the March 1940 Official Guide.

On this page: At a glance · Charter and the land grant · Columbus, 1861 · The Cairo & St. Louis · Standard gauge and Montgomery · March 1940 · September 13, 1940

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Mobile & Ohio. The 1940 Official Guide styles it the Mobile & Ohio Rail Road Company
Chartered	Early 1848, Mobile toward the Ohio River
Land grant	September 20, 1850. Alternate sections in Alabama and Mississippi, in the same act as the Illinois Central
To the Mississippi	April 22, 1861, Columbus, Kentucky
Cairo	Ohio River bridge, May 1882
St. Louis	Lease of the St. Louis & Cairo, February 1, 1886. That line had been the three-foot Cairo & St. Louis
Montgomery	1898, from Artesia, Mississippi, through Tuscaloosa
Mileage, 1940	1,180.45, March 1940 Official Guide
Receivers, 1940	C. E. Ervin and T. M. Stevens, St. Louis. V. J. Thompson, chief operating officer
Into the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio	September 13, 1940

Charter and the land grant

The company was chartered early in 1848 to build a railroad from Mobile to the Ohio River, through the cotton country of Alabama and Mississippi and on across Tennessee. The federal land-grant act of September 20, 1850 endowed that project and the Illinois Central together. Alternate sections in Alabama and Mississippi went to the Mobile & Ohio. The Illinois piece of the same act became the Illinois Central, chartered by the state on February 10, 1851. The two grants were the decade's pattern for a north-south railroad, and the 1850s page tells the act as a whole.

Columbus, 1861

Construction ran north from the Gulf. On April 22, 1861, the railhead reached Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River. That alignment became the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio's eastern road south of Jackson, Tennessee, through Corinth, Mississippi. The Gulf, Mobile & Northern, organized a generation later, built the parallel line to the west.

Cairo, Illinois, on the Ohio, was the next river city, and it waited for a bridge. The Ohio River bridge opened in May 1882 and gave the Mobile & Ohio a direct interchange with the Illinois Central.

The Cairo & St. Louis

St. Louis came by lease of a narrow-gauge coal road. The Cairo & St. Louis was chartered on February 16, 1865, to a gauge of three feet, to move coal from the mines around Murphysboro, Illinois. Construction began on September 1, 1871. East St. Louis to Murphysboro, 90 miles, opened on July 1, 1873. George Hilton records that the company reached East St. Louis at first by a third rail on the East St. Louis, Cahokia & Falling Springs.

The Cairo end was the hard piece. Work began on October 14, 1874. The location needed a tunnel at Kaolin and a bridge over the Big Muddy River. Cairo to Murphysboro was finished on February 19, 1875, and the whole route to East St. Louis opened on March 1. The roadbed gave trouble. Receivers took the property in late 1877. On June 14, 1881, it was reorganized as the St. Louis & Cairo, rebuilt in places, including the tunnel, and in 1883 completed a short extension that put its own rails into East St. Louis by way of East Carondelet. The gauge was three feet.

Standard gauge and Montgomery

The Mobile & Ohio leased that railroad on February 1, 1886. Its own main line, Cairo to Mobile, had been built to a five-foot gauge and converted to standard gauge in 1885. The leased line followed on November 15, 1886. In 1898 the company opened east from Artesia, Mississippi, through Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The map at the top of this page is that finished railroad: Mobile to Cairo and St. Louis on the heavy line, and the Montgomery branch to the east.

The Southern Railway acquired the Mobile & Ohio in 1901 and held it for about thirty years. By the March 1940 Official Guide the company was in receivership, with C. E. Ervin and T. M. Stevens as receivers at St. Louis.

March 1940

The three Guide pages that follow are the public timetable of that season, pages 485, 486, and 487. The Gulf, Mobile & Northern's map and timetable from the same issue, pages 609 through 611, are on that railroad's page.

Mobile & Ohio page from the March 1940 Official Guide, page 485. The Gulf Coast Special's Chicago connections, via the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Alton, the Wabash, and the Illinois Central into St. Louis, and condensed freight schedules for trains 29, 53, 25, 26, 52, and 30.

Mobile and Ohio Official Guide page 486, March 1940, receivers and the Gulf Coast Special

Official Guide page 486, March 1940. The Mobile & Ohio Rail Road Company, C. E. Ervin and T. M. Stevens, receivers, St. Louis. The road lists 1,180.45 miles. V. J. Thompson is chief operating officer. Trains 15 and 16 are the Gulf Coast Special.

Trains 15 and 16 are the Gulf Coast Special, with air-conditioned sleepers between St. Louis and Meridian and parlor-diners between Corinth and Mobile. The Gulf Coast Rebel was a later Gulf, Mobile & Ohio train on the St. Louis–Mobile run. The same page offers Mobile to Southern Railway points by way of Meridian. The mileage, 1,180.45, is this railroad alone, a few months before the merger.

Mobile and Ohio Official Guide page 487, March 1940, main line and Montgomery District

Official Guide page 487, March 1940. Table 1, the main line, effective January 2, 1940, East St. Louis to Mobile by way of Cairo, Jackson, Tennessee, Corinth, Tupelo, Artesia, and Meridian. Table 3, the Montgomery District, is dated January 2, 1939. Branch tables cover Starkville, Aberdeen, Blocton, and the Bay Shore line to Bayou La Batre.

Trains 15 and 16 and trains 3 and 4 are the passenger service on that main-line table. The stations are the eastern railroad the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio inherited: Cairo, Jackson, Corinth, Tupelo, Artesia, Meridian, and Mobile, with Montgomery off the Artesia junction. The locomotives, from six-wheel switchers through Ten-Wheelers, Pacifics, and Mikados, are the steam roster. Drury's post-1900 class list for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern is its own page.

September 13, 1940

The Gulf, Mobile & Ohio was chartered in 1938 to join this railroad with the Gulf, Mobile & Northern. Isaac Burton Tigrett led that combination, and the merger was completed on September 13, 1940. Six months earlier the Official Guide still carried the receivers' names. The new company spent the war on the two southern main lines. Chicago came with the Alton on May 31, 1947. That story, the diesel roster, and the 1952 maps are the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio.

The eastern line through Corinth outlived the merged company as a separate route. Illinois Central Gulf sold it, with other former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio track in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, to the Gulf & Mississippi, which began service on July 10, 1985.

Sources

George W. Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads. The Cairo & St. Louis as a three-foot gauge, the third rail on the East St. Louis, Cahokia & Falling Springs, the Kaolin tunnel, the June 14, 1881 reorganization as the St. Louis & Cairo, and the February 1, 1886 lease
Act of September 20, 1850. Alternate sections in Alabama and Mississippi for the Mobile & Ohio, paired with the Illinois Central grant. The 1850s page is the site's account of that act
The Official Guide, March 1940, pages 485–487. Receivers C. E. Ervin and T. M. Stevens, 1,180.45 miles, V. J. Thompson, the Gulf Coast Special, and the Rand McNally map dated December 1938. Those pages are reproduced above
Mike Schafer, More Classic American Railroads. The 1938 charter of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and the September 13, 1940 merger, led by Ike Tigrett
James H. Lemly, The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio: A Railroad That Had to Expand or Expire (1953)
George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 224–225. The post-1900 Mobile & Ohio class list is the steam roster. The Gulf, Mobile & Northern list in the same book is pages 186–187

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