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The Savannah-Montgomery Division

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The Savannah-Montgomery Division rail line (a.k.a. Alabama Division) which passed through my hometown of Meldrim, GA has quite an interesting history.  Originally built in part by the Savannah & Western Railroad which was formed in June and July of 1888 as a subsidiary of the Central Railroad & Banking Co, the line has seen traffic from no less than 11 different railways/railroads.

The Central Rail Road & Banking Co. (CRR&B), later known as the Central of Georgia Railway, had already built a rail line (between 1835 and 1839) from Savannah, GA to Oliver, GA that passed through the area that would eventually become the town of Meldrim in 1878.  At Meldrim, this line turned sharply northward toward Macon, GA, and had reached that goal by 1843.  At Macon, this Savannah-Macon line met with another, existing (currently unknown) line that ran southwest to Montgomery, AL.  The CRR&B apparently deemed this route too time-consuming for both its freight and passenger service, and it began looking for another, shorter route to Montgomery from Savannah.  This eventually led to the creation of the Savannah & Western Railroad which was a consolidation of seven other small railroads then owned by the CRR&B.

In May 1890, the S&W built a began construction on a branch line off of the CRR&B's existing line at Meldrim almost due west to Lyons, GA where it met with another, existing rail line that had been built in early 1890 by the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SA&M).  The SA&M was later owned by Georgia and Alabama Railway (G&A), also known as "Savannah Short Line," after it was sold under foreclosure to the G&A in May 1895.

In 1896, the almost 58 mile section of track between Meldrim to Lyons, the "Lyons Branch" as it was then called, was leased to the G&A.  On April 1, 1896, the Seaboard Air Line Railway began operating on the Meldrim to Lyons branch.

On July 1, 1900, the Georgia and Alabama Railway was consolidated into the Seaboard Air Line Railway.

In 1946, after a brief period of being in receivership, the SAL Railway was reformed and renamed Seaboard Air Line Railroad.

On July 1, 1967, the line began to see traffic of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) trains after the merger of the SAL and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL).  This lasted until 1982 when the line began seeing traffic of Seaboard System Railroad (SBD) trains after the merger between the SCL and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N).  The line saw SBD traffic until 1986 when the SBD changed its name to CSX Transportation, a division of CSX Corporation.  CSX operated trains on the line for only a very short time before leasing or selling the line to the Georgia Central (GC) Railway, which operates the line to this day.

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