Central of Georgia

[lwjabo]

http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/a459ea77-c71b-4dc4-aecf-70221ff2df57.jpg

[florida581]

After looking at CofG's route map, I would guess roughly 60% of its system is still active today.   Some of the branchlines have been spun off to Class 3 roads.  However some segments, such as Macon - Savannah, are still fairly busy.

[lwjabo]

After looking at CofG's route map, I would guess roughly 60% of its system is still active today.   Some of the branchlines have been spun off to Class 3 roads.  However some segments, such as Macon - Savannah, are still fairly busy.

My guess is half of the CofG is gone but then that can be said of Southern also. The lines to Montgomery Alabama are gone. The line from Columbus to Americus is leased. A few miles of the CG operate at Rome by yard crews but most of it is gone. The line north of Krannert is gone but some of it out of Chattanooga is leased. The old Raymond line out of Columbus is gone and the line out of Athens is gone. Every thing south of Albany is leased or not used. The line south of Newnan is said to be in mothballs but pines grow between the rails 40 foot high. For a while they did not operate trains between Columbus and Birmingham. The signals were to be removed but the last I heard FRA stopped it.
The old Georgia Division of Southern the line from Griffin to Columbus and from Williamson to the sand pits north of Fort Valley is gone and the part south of the sand pits is leased. Yard work at Rome is way below 40 % if what it was. All the pulp and chips is trucked and most of the business has went to trucks. GE closed. The rock hole closed and now full of water. I mentioned the CG part. In some cases it looks like NS or Southern talked the customers into going to trucks. In others the service got so bad the customers closed or went to trucks. The good news. Tony told me they will start hiring for Atlanta Terminal soon.

[florida581]

I imagine the Griffin - Columbus segment was quite hilly going near Pine Mountain.  Did this line require helpers?  What was rail traffic like when it was still active?

[lwjabo]

Nope it was local service only. We would slip down often. The first hill that gave trouble south bound was Flint River pulling into Woodbury. Some times have trouble pulling into Warm Springs. Then Waverly Hall and last was Ellerslie. There was a storage track at Ellerslie and a few times after doubling there found it very hard to pull away. Our normal power were the GE four axel engines numbered in the 3900 series of Southern. This was Southern as they bought this line as the Georgia Midland and Gulf around 1910. Southern had a switch engine in Columbus but just before I came to work in 71 the Central crews took over the job. We had a good deal of local business in the late 70s up till 1980. We took most of the pulp wood south as it went to Cedar Springs or Mkart. There was one wood yard at Woodbury that shipped to Jacksonville and Charleston Tn. The one at Warm Springs also shipped to Charleston some times. We had lots of problems with the wood out of Warm Springs. The man who would buy from the pulp wooders did not understand it was to be 4 feet long and he would buy it at 3 feet to 4 feet. That made the loads un even and the wood was very unstable on the racks. The Neal pulpwood was near perfect. They brought in the trees whole and they were cut to size in the yard by band saw. All the pulpwood went to trucks and was the end for that line. The line was abandoned I think in 89. There was two cement plants just out side Columbus at Myers. There was a 84 lumber and Montgomery Ward also. There had been two gas tracks but they stopped receiving cars around 76. Nabisco was at Woodbury and also a gin track that got fertilizer in bulk loaded in box cars. I remember every car we spotted we had to pull take to Columbus and weigh as the customers complained about it running out the doors. We had a good deal of local traffic around Griffin. Two cotton mills. Dundee and Thomaston Mills. A Budweiser dist. A Jackson Dist. that had several brands. Borden Chemical. Mortel and Mouchet got cars and Pomona Products and South Eastern Wood. Were the regular customers. Were 3 or 4 more customers but they opened and closed and were not always shipping. This is quiet long so will end here.