Still Going Strong after all these Years

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a GP-7M, owned by the

Altlana & St. Andrews Bay Railroad, at that time. Things have changed for the railroad since this picture was taken in 1972. This website provides a full history of the railroad. I have excerpted parts of it below. https://www.american-rails.com/asab.html The Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay Railway (A&StAB) was incorporated on February 14, 1906, by A. B. Steele, a noted lumberman based in Atlanta. Steele had recently purchased large tracts of land south of Dothan, Alabama and was attempting to have the timber transported by rail to a newly established port in the Northern Panhandle of Florida. Working with another lumber magnate, R.L. McKenzie, who owned tracts of land in Florida the two agreed to complete the railroad to the Gulf Coast at the small town of Harrison, later renamed Panama City. The first 30 miles between Dothan and Cottondale (Florida) were constructed very quickly and neared Panama City by late 1906. However, the final 11 miles to the coast became controversial when the E. E. Saunders Company did not want to grant the railroad access over its property. Eventually, this issue was settled, and the line was completed in 1908 consisting of 81 miles. The A&StAB boasted three interchange partners along its system; two were located at its northern terminus of Dothan (Central of Georgia and Atlantic Coast Line) while another with the Louisville & Nashville was established at Cottondale. In 1930 it was acquired by the International Paper Company, which maintained control for the next several decades. Both World Wars proved fruitful for the railroad in terms of traffic; after the second World War A&StAB still moved a substantial level of freight, enabling it to earn Class I status by January of 1947. That same year it fully dieselized its fleet of thirteen Alco RS1s, a pair of S2s, and a single F3A. Other new diesels purchased later were all Electro-Motive products including GP7s, SD9s, a GP39, a GP40, and a trio of GP38-2s. In 1994 the railroad was sold to the Rail Management Corporation, which officially renamed it as the Bay Line Railroad. On the first of June, 2005 Genesee & Wyoming took over the system and continues to operate it today.

The post card was published by the ever elusive Railcards.com company out of Alameda, California