reated in 1940, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad was brought into being by the merger of two parallel regionals running south to north: newcomer Gulf, Mobile & Northern and the bankrupt veteran Mobile & Ohio. Both predecessor roads served the Gulf Coast ports — Mobile and New Orleans — and both laid rails northward to inland city markets in Tennessee, Kentucky. and Missouri. The older and longer M&O built as for north as St. Louis; the GM&N built to Jackson, Tennessee, with trackage rights as far as Paducah, Ky. Brought together under the leadership of President "Ike" Tigrett of Jackson, Tn, the new GM&O system spanned 2000 miles and offered the parallel Illinois Central lines a legitimate competitor in the Gulf to Great Lakes market for people and goods. Less than a decade later, following the War, in 1947, the expanding GM&O purchased the Alton Railroad, creating a 3000 mile north-south rail system serving America's middle states and offering a direct trunk line service between the great gateways of commerce and industry of this region. Like the Southern Railway, the GM&O was one of the first major railroad systems to dieselize. All of its aging steam motive power was inherited from its predecessors, and the fires dropped completely in the fall of 1949. Both Alco and EMD first generation "motors" were purchased to bring the road into the modern era.

On August 10, 1972, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad merged into the Illinois Central Railroad, forming the massive 9600-mile north-south Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. The ICG would find itself saddled with unprofitable east-west routes along its north-south corridor; making use of the Staggers Act after 1980, the Chicago-based system spun-off many of its secondary lines, including the bulk of the former GM&O mainline and secondary trackage. Although the ICG merger had been billed as a merger, in hindsight — for the GM&O at least — it was a merger with a subsequent liquidation. Although a handful of GM&O trackage is stil operated, most of the sytem has been abandoned. Kansas City Southern subsidiary Gateway Western operates the Springfield to Kansas City route; through acquisitions, Union Pacific has the Joliet to Saint Louis segment. In the south, several segments remain in operation by Kansas City Southern or recent shortlines. Chronicling those former GM&O lines, in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, is the heart of our "Rebel Routes" family tree collection.

Remembered today as "the Route of the Rebel," the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio remains a favorite among railfans and historians alike.