Click the image above to view the West Point Route & Georgia Railroad route map, July 1946. Credit: OAR Collection

The Western Railway of Alabama had its origins in the Montgomery Rail Road, which was chartered on January 15, 1834, for the purpose of constructing a railroad from Montgomery, on the Alabama River, to West Point, Georgia, on the Chattahoochee River. Click here to view postcards of the West Point Route

The road was opened to Franklin, Alabama, 32.4 miles from Montgomery, in June, 1840. The company was not successful, as revenues barely equaled expenses, leaving nothing for further construction. The road was sold under foreclosure on July 9, 1842, and reorganized as the Montgomery & West Point Rail Road on February 13, 1843. With additional financing, largely by the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company and the South Carolina Rail Road, the M&WP was completed to West Point on April 28, 1851. At West Point, connection was made with the Atlanta & LaGrange Rail Road (later renamed the Atlanta & West Point Rail Road), an affiliate of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company.

In 1854, the Western Rail Road of Alabama was chartered to build a line from Selma to Montgomery and a connection with the M&WP. Work was not completed on this line until December of 1870, having been delayed by the War Between the States. Prior to that time, the M&WP and the Western had merged on September 1, 1870, through an exchange of stock, with Western Rail Road of Alabama being the surviving company.