This is more of a modern day, rather than historical question, but here goes anyway. I continually hear of congestion/strained capacity on the Fitz. and Abbeville subs out of Atlanta. Does anyone know/care to speculate if the GA road will ever get some of this traffic? What of the long term viability of the Atl-Augusta main? Is it of any real use other than a detour route (re SAL and AB&C above) and alternate route (for Harllee coal trains Atl-Camak). The Georgia is my "hometown" (Conyers) R.R., and I have never seen things at the low ebb they are now. They just took away the pig trains that went to NYC, most Harllee coal seems to take the "back door" (read CRR) through Augusta, all the SC coal (Middleton, N. Wateree, Beech Island) goes via the Clinch, the West Point has enough trains to warrant TC installation! Is the GA road permanently consigned to lead a sleepy "Central of Georgia" like existence? Any thoughts/feedback the GA road, past or present would be appreciated.

-- Steven Holmes (stevenholmes@mindspring.com), September 03, 2000

Answers

Hi, Steven. Except for a brief time in 1985, I have never lived near the Georgia, but what a way-cool bunch of railroads the Georgia bunch (it's really too flattering to call them a "group")once were. I've been a GARR/WPR fan since the early 70s, even though I grew up in ACL/SCL Fitz. I just really liked how down-home and shameless the Georgia was-it's motive power uncleanliness, decadence, and its early 70s tax-mandated "mixed trains". (One daring soul who rode in the lone ex-West Point coach felt a lump in his seat and it turned out to be a rat). What do you say about a railroad that turns a boxcar or a nasty, derelict old heavyweight passenger car into a caboose? What do you say about a railroad that was sending a coal train down to Milledgeville in the 60s, had a derailment, and just left all the coal there, advertising free coal to local residents. I say, long live the Georgia road!

-- Bud Leggett (leggettd@dartnet.peachnet.edu), June 12, 2001.

Steven, It looks like there is still some piggyback traffic on the Georgia road. While looking at the terminal lineup for Atlanta yesterday I noticed three trains inbound for Atlanta. I did not check on the Augusta bound trains. The Atlanta bound trains were N22027 with CSXT 720 and CSXT 337 for power. At 0957 it was at Buckhead and originated at Harllee with 91 empties. Q19729 was at Almon with CSXT 8728 and FURX 3027 for power and Q12629 was just called to leave Augusta at 1115. I too have always considered the Georgia Railroad my home town road. My very first train trip was on the mixed freight passenger local and the first locomotve I ever ran was a GP-38-2 on the Decatur, GA local.

-- Justin Dzan; Louisville, KY (jbdzan@aol.com), December 31, 2000.