Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad
The Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad (AB&C) existed from 1887 to 1945. It was created in 1926 to take over the bankrupt Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway and was mainly controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL).
The AB&C used standard gauge track and covered about 640 miles of road (with more miles of track including sidings and yards). In 1944 it reported heavy freight and passenger use, moving 763 million net ton-miles of freight and 33 million passenger-miles. By the end of that year it operated roughly 639 miles of main road and 836 miles of track overall.
The railroad ran daily freight and passenger trains between its northern end at Atlanta and Birmingham, and its southern ends at Brunswick, Waycross, and Thomasville. In Atlanta, passenger trains used Terminal Station until 1933, after which they moved to Atlanta Union Station. In Birmingham, southbound trains left from the Eleventh Street station.
From the north, two branches joined at Manchester to form a single main line to Brunswick on the Atlantic coast. A Fitzgerald branch extended 80 miles southwest to Thomasville, while another branch went to Waycross to connect with ACL lines to Jacksonville, Florida. The Waycross branch was the busiest for both freight and passengers.
Starting in January 1936, the AB&C was part of the winter Chicago–Miami Dixieland route, carrying coaches and Pullmans between Atlanta and Waycross. Beginning in January 1940, the AB&C also carried the Dixie Flagler, a streamlined all-coach train running every third day as part of a three-route daily service between Chicago and Miami. The AB&C route was the shortest of the three, covering about 1,455 miles in roughly 29.5 hours.
In 1946 the AB&C was merged into the ACL, becoming ACL’s Western Division.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:11 (CET).