Does anyone know why the gulf mobile and ohio station was not used for amtrak service in Mobile ?
It is a stub end station inaccessible from the south. The Amtrak service ran through. Athough nominally east-west in orientation, the track direction is more or less north-south, with the southern end being the westerly end, that is toward New Orleans.
Its actual origin was not GM&O, but M&O. That is, it was the Mobile and Ohio station
before the M&O was take over by the Gulf Mobile and Northern. Uncertain whether the present station building was built before the merger of the two companies or as part of the merger / anticipated merger. The merger, actually takeover of the M&O by the GM&N, occurred on September 13, 1940. Passenger service ended, I think, in 1959. The last train was the Gulf Coast Rebel, overnight between Mobile and St. Louis. The ex-M&O main into the city has been abandoned and the ex-GM&N line is now ICRR.
The Amtrak trains used what was the Louisville and Nashville station, which had service right up to A-day.
The other station, the Southern Railway station was also stub end and accessible only to'from the north. It lost its passenger service somewhere before 1960, a once a day train to/from Birmingham. It and the GM&O station are fairly close together.
