How it started
Early years
The Genesee and Wyoming Railroad was the flagship predecessor to the G&W; Edward L. Fuller purchased it out of a bankruptcy in 1899. At that time, the railroad was operating as a 14.5-mile-long (23.3 km) single-track line serving a single customer, a salt mine owned by Fuller in Retsof, New York. It was still operating the same line for the salt mine when Mortimer B. Fuller III, great-grandson of Edward L. Fuller, purchased the railroad in 1977. The holding company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Inc., was organized during the same year, and the railroad became its subsidiary.
With deregulation of the rail industry by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, railroads began disposing of unprofitable routes. Genesee & Wyoming acquired several of these short line railroads, scattered across the United States, from 1985 to 1996. Its acquisitions began including railroads in other countries in 1997.
Continued expansion
In November 1997, Genesee & Wyoming purchased the South Australian freight operations of Australian National and rebranded the operation Australian Southern Railroad.
In October 2000, Australian Railroad Group, a 50/50 joint venture between Genesee & Wyoming and Wesfarmers, were the successful bidder for the Westrail freight business in Western Australia. As part of the joint venture agreement, ownership of Australian Southern Railroad passed to Australian Railroad Group.
From Wikipedia’s article on Genesee & Wyoming, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3