Last weekend, while driving through Hawkinsville, GA I stumbled across an old depot there. Though I have forgotten the street it is on, the building (currently used as a scale house) is just north of the business district and adjacent to several cotton gins and peanut warehouses. I was curious as to which railroad(s)owned the station out of the four lines (Southern, H&FS, H&W, and W&T)that served the city until the 1920's and if the other lines used the station or had seperate terminals. Also, when did the Southern Ry., the last line to operate into Hawkinsville, retrench their track just across the Ocmulgee River to the grain elevator ? Was this due to their truss bridge, which is still in place, over the Ocmulgee being in poor shape or a general lack of traffic in Hawkinsville proper?

-- Eric Rickert (au_tiger777@hotmail.com), December 04, 2002

Answers

Eric, I've noticed the station that you mentioned. Unfortunately, the time that I saw the station was during a terrible rainstorm. My impression of the station was that it was probably built in the 1930's - 1940's. My guess is that it was most probably the Ocilla Southern RR's station on their main line extending from Perry, Ga through Hawkinsville, Fitzgerald, and Ocilla to Nashville, Ga. My second guess is the Hawkinsville and Florida Southern Railway. It is possible that both railroad lines may have used the station. All of the railroads serving Hawkinsville (with the exception of the Southern Rwy) experienced significant financial problems which contributed greatly to their demise. Norfolk Southern put the Hawkinsville branch up for take-over or abandonment due to the low revenues from meager carloadings combined with the increasing expenses of maintaining the railroad line, particularly the railroad bridge. Best wishes! Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com)

-- Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com), December 20, 2002.