New Orleans and Gulf Coast Railway
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The New Orleans and Gulf Coast Railway Company (NOGC) is a former Union Pacific Railroad (UP) branch line located outside New Orleans, Louisiana. The NOGC is a 32-mile-long (51 km) railroad that interchanges with the UP in Westwego. The railroad serves over twenty switching and industrial customers and is the only railroad operating east of Avondale on the West Bank of Mississippi River. Predominant shipments include a variety of food products, oils, grains petroleum products, chemicals and steel products. Rio Grande Pacific Corporation maintains a 100% equity interest in this property. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Grande Pacific Company.
The Westwego-Algiers line was received from Union Pacific, but is actually an amalgamation of portions of two parallel lines constructed by Union Pacific predecessors and rivals. The line closer to the river was a Texas and Pacific (T&P) route, built along the river to serve the industry-rich areas between Waggaman and Algiers. The T&P was absorbed by the Missouri Pacific in 1976, which in turn was absorbed by the Union Pacific beginning in 1980, completed in 1997. Running parallel to the T&P between the same communities was another route originally built by Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad, which would later become the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific (SP) system. When the SP was merged into the Union Pacific, this line, too, came under the control of the UP.
The - line was purchased from previous shortline New Orleans Lower Coast Railroad (NOLR), which was a RailTex subsidiary. The NOLR purchased the 24 mile segment from the Union Pacific in 1991. The route had been a Missouri Pacific branchline before the UP merger, but was built in 1891 by the . In 1911, this company was combined with the to form the , which by 1916 was sold to form the . By 1926 this last independent operation was under the control of the Missouri Pacific and later absorbed.
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- Louisiana railroads
- Switching and terminal railroads
- Companies operating former Missouri Pacific Railroad lines
- United States railway company stubs
- Louisiana transportation stubs