Apalachicola Northern

Company History: The Apalachicola Northern Railroad has been operating in the Florida Panhandle for more than 100 years running from the Gulf Coast to the Georgia border along a system that is nearly 100 miles in length. Today, The Port St. Joe Route is known as the AN Railway and owned by the Genesee & Wyoming. Amongst railfans the Apalachicola is perhaps best known for using a rare Electro-Motive road-switcher, all three of which are still in use on the property. In recent years it has struggled to survive after the loss of paper traffic, which made up a majority of its annual carloads for decades. However, to date it has persevered and still moves a fair amount of wood-related products. Additionally, the railroad has been able to find other sources of freight in recent years to diversify its traffic base, which will hopefully allow to carry on as a successful shortline for many years.

The history of the Apalachicola Northern Railroad begins on April 7, 1903 when it was chartered to construct a route north of Apalachicola to Chattahoochee where an interchange would be made with the Atlantic Coast Line as well as the Seaboard Air Line. After roughly two years construction on the line finally began on March 21, 1905 although it took two additional years until the route was finally opened, 76.5 miles. The road's owners were soon after looking to complete the line to Port St. Joe, just west of Apalachicola along the coast. However, it fell into bankruptcy in July of the same year it opened, 1907, due to construction costs and initial lack of traffic. A year later it had exited receivership in October of 1908 and by May 10, 1910 had finally completed its long sought extension, 19.8 miles, which earned it the name as The Port St. Joe Route and gave it a total system.

Successor/Parent History: Known today as the largest of the shortline holding companies, Genesee & Wyoming began as a shortline by that name in 1899 with a 15 mile line between Retsof and Caledonia, New York, just south of Rochester. In 1982, they extended southward to Greigsville by buying a former Lackawanna line from Conrail. In 1985, another purchase extended their reach north to Rochester and southwest to Silver Springs. This brought the mileage up to about 90. The Wyoming in the name is a reference to the Wyoming Valley.

In 1977, the railroad set up Genesee & Wyoming Inc. as a parent company. In 1985, they began to buy other shortlines and launch new ones as various Class One routes came up for sale or lease. Each of these lines operates under their own names but share the orange, yellow and black GNWR paint scheme, variations of which have been used by GNWR for decades. The logos of these related lines also use the GNWR style but with different wording and the occasional personalized element.

As of this writing, the Genesee & Wyoming family includes 121 shortline and regional railroads spread across North America, Europe and Australia. As of 2019, G&W became a subsidiary of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. G&W has also bought other shortline groups, notably Rail Link in 1996, Summit View (the Ohio Central System) in 2008, Rail Management in 2005,.CAGY Industries in 2008, and largest of all RailAmerica in 2012.

Ironically, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad was merged into the Rochester & Southern in 2003. The GNWR exists as a paper railroad but the logos on the diesels patrolling the old GNWR now say Rochester & Southern or the neighboring Buffalo & Pittsburgh.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.