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Georgia Southwestern Railroad Rare Mileage Trips 2005 Sponsored by the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum

Bart Jennings of the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum gave me a brochure for these trips on the Georgia Southwestern Railroad in July and I studied my maps but at first decided not to do it. After I went back to work at McFadden Intermediate and the lost boxes we had put into storage had not been returned, I decided I would need a trip soon. Remembering Bart's event, I decided to use my Alaska Airlines miles to fly from Orange County to Albany, Georgia then first class on Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines. A rental car was next and Hertz was at the Albany airport. Finally, I sent off for the train tickets and reserved a room at the Best Western in Albany. Chris Parker then decided to join me and we would meet in Atlanta on the way.

I needed to pick up Trainweb's digital camera after 8:00 AM and also wanted to get my 898,000th rail mile before leaving later today as I was just seven miles short. My plan was to ride Pacific Surfliner 562 to San Juan Capistrano then Pacific Surfliner 763 to Fullerton and Pacific Surfliner 566 home. I went down to Santa Ana and learned that Train 562 was running late, as was Train 763, meaning there was no way I could get to San Juan so bought a roundtrip Metrolink ticket from Tustin to Fullerton, knowing that would work.

A headlight appeared at 7:12 AM and it was Pacific Surfliner 562, so I boarded for a ride to Irvine, picking up mile 898,000 near Sand Canyon Road. At Irvine, I crossed the bridge and a few minutes later, Metrolink 607 took me to Fullerton where I walked over to the Trainweb and TrainParty.com offices to pick up the camera and a brief visit with Ray Burns. Metrolink 600 returned me to Santa Ana and I returned home then finished packing. I drove my mother to the airport and was through security in less than four minutes then since I had an hour-and-forty-five minutes to spare, listened to Yes' "Talk".

At 11:25 AM PST, I boarded the B757, taking my First Class seat 3D. We left the gate a few minutes late and with all the Santa Ana winds strongly blowing, we taxied to the south end and took off north for my first time. The movie was "Bad News Bears" and the meal was chicken. We arrived at Gate B2 in Atlanta on time after a fantastic flight.

I deplaned at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at Gate B2 and walked through the "B" Terminal to an escalator to take me to the connection to Terminal D where I boarded the Airport's underground-automated people mover, connecting all concourses with the terminal, which consists of nine, four-car trains operating on a 3.5-mile loop track. The time between trains, at any of the 14 stations, is approximately two minutes. I made one roundtrip on this system, returning to the Terminal B walkway between all terminals.

After sitting the whole trip here, I decided to walk between Terminals B and D and arriving at Terminal D, I visited Burger King for a hamburger. My gate was originally D29 but was changed to D31. Keith Richards' "Main Offender" and Queen's "Night at the Opera" used up most of time before my next flight and Chris Parker arrived from Los Angeles with plenty of time to connect with me.

At 9:50 PM EST, the boarding announcement was made for the flight to Albany, Georgia. After our boarding passes were scanned, we walked down the stairs to the waiting CPJ-200 airplane and the flight would only take 28 minutes once we were airborne. We arrived at Albany a few minutes early and I was first to the Hertz rental car counter, receiving a Kia and used Mapquest directions from the airport to the Albany Best Western where we checked in for our five-night stay.

Once Chris and I were in our room, we called it a night.

The two of us arose at 6:00 AM EST and drove north out of Albany towards Americus, stopping at a petrol station in Leesburg for some snacks, then driving along the Norfolk Southern Macon-to-Albany line for a short distance before we broke away. Just before Americus, we crossed over the Heart of Georgia Railroad, on which the Historic SAM Shortline runs passenger train out of Cordele. We came to the road which took us west to Plains, in search of that town's station and Brother Billy's Gas Station. About ten minutes later, we arrived in Plains .

Seaboard Air Line Plains station built in 1888 and used by Jimmy Carter to start his presidental campaign.

The Seaboard Coast Line symbol on the station.

The Georgia Historical Marker to President Jimmy Carter.

Brother Billy Carter's Phillips 66 gas station.

Main Street in Plains. I visited a store for a few postcards then we departed en route to Americus and stopped at a Subway for some sandwiches to go reaching a railroad crossing on Bump Head Road where we found our trainset.

The Georgia Southwestern Railroad actually started as a division of the South Carolina Central Railroad (a subsidiary of RailTex, Inc.) in November 1988 operating between Rhine, Georgia and Mahrt, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia and Bainbridge, Georgia, both line segments were acquired from CSX Transportation. In that same year, another division of the South Carolina Central Railroad, the Georgia & Alabama Division, began operating the Smithville to Eufaula, Alabama line leased from Norfolk Southern Corportion. These two divisions were followed up by a third, the Georgia Great Southren Division, which began operating the Dawson to Albany line acquired from CSX. All three divisions operated as separate units of the South Carolina Central Railroad.

In late 1995, the GSW Division discontinued their operations of Rhine to Omaha, and Cusseta to Cuthbert. The line segments were reacquired by CSXT and abandoned. The only segment to have track removed was Cusseta to Cuthberg. The State of Georgia DOT purchased the other two segments and saved them from scrapping. In 1995, RailTex sold the Mahrt Yard to Mead Paper.

In August 1995, the GSW Division leased from Norfolk Southern Corporation the line between Ochilee and BV&E Junction (Americus). The GSW also acquired trackage rights between Ochilee and Columbus and between BV&E Junction, Smithville and Albany. This permitted the continued handling of traffic between Bainbridge and Columbus.

In September 1996, the Georgia Southwestern Railroad Company was incorporated and consolidated the operations of the three division of the South Carolina Central Railroad under one operating entity. This was the official of today's Georgia Southwestern Railroad.

In 1997, the GSWR sold to the Rails to Trails Conservancy the portion of the former CGS line between Sasser and Albany. In mid-198, the GSWR leased the former Rhine-Rochelle line back from the State of Georgia (the line was actually extended to Vidalia). In early 2000, the GSWR leased to Rochelle-Preston and Omaha-Mahrt lines, and transferred the Georgia DOT Vidalia line to the Heart of Georgia Railroad. At about the same time, the GSWR sold the Rochelle-to-Preston line to the Georgia Department of Transportation. In 2000, the GWSR became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rail America, Inc. with its merger with RailTex, Inc.

In early 2002, Rail America sold the GSWR to local ownershi[p in conjunction with its line sales of Lynn (Bainbridge) to Chuthberg, Dawson to Sasset and Cusseta to Columbus, to the Georgia Department of Transportation.

A map of the Georgia Southwestern Railroad.

The track between Americus and Buena Vista was built by the Buena Vista & Ellaville Railroad organized in 1880 and completed in 1887. It was acquired by the Savannah & Western then controlled by the Central of Georgia Railroad in 1888 as {part of their through route linking Savannah and Columbus}. This connected with the central part of the route between Lyons and Americus which was owned by the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway. West from Americus the S&W built into Columbus by first acquiring the BV&E and then built the rest of the track into Columbus. By the mid 1890's this route was a failure and in 1896 the Central of Georgia leased the line east of Lyons to the Seaboard Air Line, which became part of their Savannah-Columbus-Montgomery Line.

In 1907, E.H. Harriman gained control of the Central of Georgia {he already controlled the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and Illinois Central} then had the IC build a Jackson to Birmingham line. Using the Mobile and Ohio trackage rights that then gave Harriman a connection to the Central of Georgia and he took ownership of this railroad. IC introduced Chicago to Florida passenger trains to this route with names like the Seminole Limited, Floridian, Sunchaser and City of Miami. All these train were turned over to the Atlantic Coast Line in Albany, Georgia.

Harriman lost his railroad holdings and by 1932 during the depression, the Central of Georgia went into receivership. In 1948, the IC lost control of the railroad and in 1956 the Frisco tried to acquire it but the Interstate Commerce Commission denied it and the line was sold to the Southern Railroad. On June 17 ,1963, the Central of Georgia became a subsidiary of the Southern and soon disappeared into the larger company. In the 1980's, the Southern and the Norfolk Western merged into the Norfolk Southern.

The recent history of our route today is that in August 1995, the GSW Division leased from Norfolk Southern the line between Ochill and B.V.& E. Jct. (Americus). This permitted the continued handling of traffic between Bainbridge and Columbus. The GSW also acquired trackage rights between Ochille and Columbus, and between B.V. & E. Jct, Smithville and Albany.

Our rear locomotive was Georgia Southwestern F9A 6302, ex. VIA 6533, exx. VIA 6302, nee Canadian National 6302 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1958.

Bart Jennings put this sign on the front of our train so people would know this is the train! This is Georgia Southwestern F9A 6308, ex. VIA 6521, exx. VIA 6308, nee Canadian National 6308 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1957.

Bart and his sign.

Georgia Southwestern coach VTRX 104, ex. Vermont Railway V313 2000, exx. Virginia Railway Express V313 1992, exxx. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 406 1976, nee Boston and Maine RDC-1 6128 built by Budd Company in 1955.

Georgia Southwestern coach VTRX 105, ex. Vermont Railway 105, ex. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, nee Boston and Maine RDC-3 63xx built by Budd Company in 1958.

Georgia Southwestern lounge car 2003, ex. Amtrak 3101, exx. Amtrak 3408, nee United States Army hospital car 89536 built by St. Louis Car Company in 1953. PPCX 800628.

Sarah Jennings, who greets everyone aboard and works the lounge counter.

Passengers socializing before the start of today's trip.

The view looking north just as we started running east to the ownership limits at MP 61.5.

Rolling east through the forest.

This yellow signal is at MP 61.5 and protects the junction with the Norfolk Southern 0.07 mile east at BV&E Junction.

We reversed direction west and crossed Bump Head Road at MP 59.2, where all our cars were parked. I wondered all day what locals thought when they saw many cars parked along the road in the middle of nowhere.

The big Georgia sky.

Rolling west on a cool and windy late morning.

Running by a pecan grove.

A cabbage patch along our route.

We passed Buena Vista siding at MP 35.5 then rounded a large curve and climbed out of town up a short grade.

The train as it descended west down the hill on a 1.1 percent grade.

Crossing Kinchafoonee Creek at MP 30.3 on a 513 long open deck pile trestle.

Chris Parker doing what he does best on a trip, videotaping!

Central of Georgia milepost sign.

We crossed Ochillee and Halloca Creeks before reaching the western Ownership Line at MP 12.0. The yard limit sign is the ownership line, with trackage to the north operated by Norfolk Southern and to the south owned and operated by Georgia Southwestern.

The view forward at MP 12.0. Our train crew switched ends before we proceeded east.

For about three miles east of MP 12.0, the landscape was a series of lakes with beaver dens in them.

We detrained at MP 15.2 for a photo runby and all made our way to the shore of the lake. This was the forward move east so they could do the runby going west. I moved to a different location for the runby.

The photo line.

The photo runby at MP 15.2.

Our group reboarding tour train.

A quick opposite side photograph at MP 15.2. I reboarded and we were off, continuing east as I socialized in the lounge car for most of the journey back.

At Ellaville, MP 49.7, we all detrained for another photo opportunity with a collapsed cotton gin mill in the background.

Our train at Ellaville. After everyone took plenty of pictures, we reboarded on the way back to Bump Head Road, where we all detrained.

The last views of our train at Bump Head Road. The crew told us that they would make a run south for home rails at Smithville to take the train back to Sasser via Dawson. I knew Chris and I could follow and photograph it as long as we had light so departed and returned to the block signals where the road to Albany met the railroad and set up there.

We caught the train about six miles north of Smithville; here are the approach pictures.

The going-away scene.

Central of Georgia Smithville station.

The train passing the station.

Our train approaching Georgia Southwestern yard.

It had to take the siding to let a Georgia Southwestern freight enter.

The Georgia Southwestern freight train.

Georgia Southwestern GP38 3802, ex. Western Rail 2795, exx. Norfolk Southern 2795, nee Southern 2795 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1970.

Georgia Southwestern GP38-3 3801, ex. Wisconsin Central GP35m 4012, exx. Wisconsin Central 2060, exxx. Missouri Pacific 603, nee Texas and Pacific GP35 603 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1963.

Georgia Southwestern B23-7 2013, ex. Connecticut Southern 2013, nee Conrail B23-7 2013 built by General Electric in 1979.

Georgia Southwestern SD40-2 6313, ex. EMD Leasing 6313, exx. SOO Line 6313, nee Milwaukee Road 29 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1973.

Running west of Smithville.

Rolling west of Bronwood. We continued the chase to Dawson and waited on the Sasser Line for our last pictures of the day.

Chris and I said goodbye to our train here and returned to the Best Western in Albany then walked over to Kentucky Fried Chicken and I brought mine back to the room. I watched the "Volcano" before we stayed up to watch the Fresno State/University of Southern California football game but only watched the first quarter of the nail-biting game with Number 1-ranked USC hanging for a close win, which I learnt the next morning.

On the trip yesterday, all passengers received an invitation to visit the Georgia Southwestern Railroad offices and museum at 7:00 AM. Chris and I arose early, stopped for a Subway sandwich to go before driving to the train station on a dark and cool Georgia morning. We parked, put our belongings on the train then walked to the offices up on the small hill overlooking the station.

The Georgia Southwestern offices are rlocated on 78 Pulpwood Road in Sasser.

The reception area.

The reception Area with Bart Jennings and Georgia Southwestern Vice President David L. Smoot.

Timetables for the lines we would be covering over these series of excursions.

Display cases of all sorts of railroad memorabilia.

I do not recall seeing a collection of step boxes from different railroads before.

A KATY Railroad sign in Georgia? But this one is included in their collection.

The upstairs offices. With this, our tour was over and I walked back to the grade crossing.

An former Southern box car on display, history unknown. I then returned to the train.