 Georgia Railroad 1026, anEMD GP7—on permanent display inDuluth, Georgia. | |
| Technical | |
|---|---|
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
| Previous gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) andconverted to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886[1] |
| Length | 331 mi (533 km) |
TheGeorgia Railroad and Banking Company (reporting markGA) also seen as "GARR",[2] was a historic railroad and banking company that operated in theU.S. state ofGeorgia. In 1967 it reported 833 million revenue-ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 331 miles (533 km) of road and 510 miles (820 km) of track.
The company was chartered in 1833 inAugusta, Georgia. In 1835, the charter was amended to include banking. Originally the line was chartered to build a railroad from Augusta toAthens, with a branch toMadison. It wasconverted to4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) in 1886.[1]
The5 ft (1,524 mm)gauge railroad opened in 1845 withJ. Edgar Thomson as its Chief Engineer andRichard Peters as its first Superintendent.[3]
At that time the rates were as follows:
Several other railroads were then under construction:
The Georgia Railroad decided to extend the Madison branch to Terminus (Atlanta) and thereby compete with the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia (later theCentral of Georgia Railroad), which together with theMacon & Western Railroad, was competing for traffic through Charleston's rivalport ofSavannah, Georgia. By 1850, this railroad had built 213 miles (343 km) of track and was up to 232 miles (373 km) by 1860.[4] At the time, goods from theMississippi andOhio valleys had to go by riverboat toNew Orleans and then via coastal steamships around theFlorida Keys, to get to the big population centers in the Northeast. Shipping cross-country by rail to the ports of Charleston and Savannah made perfect economic sense.
The banking side of the business was quickly more successful than the railroad side. The Georgia Railroad & Banking Company was perhaps the strongest bank in Georgia for many years. The bankers used some of their wealth to buy controlling interests in theAtlanta & West Point Railroad (A&WP) and theWestern Railway of Alabama (WofA), which provided a continuous line from Atlanta toMontgomery, Alabama, although the WofA wasstandard gauge, while all the other lines in the South were broad gauge.
During theAmerican Civil War, theConfederate States of America maintained agunpowder factory in Augusta. Carloads of gunpowder would be transported on the Georgia Railroad to various battlefields in the "Western Campaign."
Although the Civil War saw heavy damage to railroads such as the Georgia Railroad, management used their considerable resources to restore operation as quickly as possible. The Georgia Railroad even resorted to temporarily abandoning theAthens branch to secure enough rail to reopen its main line. After their defeat, returning Confederate soldiers were given free rides home, to the extent that the company's limited rail network would allow.
They also honored all Confederatescrip issued by their bank. No depositor lost their savings even if Confederate money had no value. It helped that the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company had the financial strength to honor those promises. At that time, most Southern banks were repudiating any obligations related toConfederate currency. This helped to solidify the bank's reputation as one of the premier banks in the southeastern United States, well into the 20th century.
TheGeorgia Railroad Freight Depot, designed by architectMax Corput, was completed in 1869 and is the oldest building inDowntown Atlanta.[5] The company was later re-chartered as the Georgia Railroad Bank, then a subsidiary of the First Railroad and Banking Company, which eventually opened banks in Atlanta under the name of First Georgia Bank. The banking operations were merged withFirst Union in 1986 and First Union subsequently merged withWachovia Corporation (nowWells Fargo).
The Georgia Railroad Bank entered the insurance business using subsidiaries such as First of Georgia, however these were subsequently sold, at considerable profit to the company.
In 1881, Colonel William M. Wadley,Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia president, leased the railroad properties of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, including the A&WP and WofA. Wadley assigned half of the lease to his company and half to the L&N. Following thePanic of 1896, the Central went into receivership and its portion of the lease lapsed, whereupon it was eventually reassigned to theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). In 1902, the ACL acquired controlling interest in the L&N; thus the Georgia, A&WP, and WofA became non-operating subsidiaries of the Atlantic Coast Line. In 1909, white firemen of the Georgia Railroad, organized under theBrotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, went on amass strike.
With the building of theSavannah and Atlanta Railroad, which connected with the Georgia Railroad atWarrenton, the Georgia Railroad now competed with the Central of Georgia Railroad for traffic to and from Savannah. Soon the ACL came to dominate the Augusta interchange traffic, through itsCharleston and Western Carolina Railway subsidiary and via the ACL's spur from its main line atFlorence, South Carolina, in order that the Georgia Railroad could compete with theSeaboard Air Line Railroad andSouthern Railway for traffic from Atlanta up theEastern seaboard.
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A 1925 timetable showed four daily roundtrips between Atlanta and Augusta.[6] A trip on theNight Express of that era was described by W.F Beckum.[7]
By the opening of the 1960s, however, passenger service had been reduced to an overnight through-train from Atlanta to Augusta, continuing as anAtlantic Coast Line Railroad train toWilmington, North Carolina, and a day train from Atlanta, making connections at Augusta with an ACL train bound forFlorence, South Carolina.[8][9]
A unique feature of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company charter was that the state legislature gave the corporation large tax breaks, which were legally challenged on several occasions. The charter also called for daily-except-Sunday passenger service. The lawyers advised management to maintain passenger service on all lines, so as to not violate the charter. The Georgia was among the last railroads to operate both freight and inter-city passenger trains in the "Lower 48" states, into theAmtrak era.
The Georgia Railroad originally fell under common management with theAtlanta & West Point Railroad and theWestern Railway of Alabama, commonly known as "the West Point Route."
In 1967, ACL merged with theSeaboard Air Line Railroad to form theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL). SCL continued to operate the Georgia Railroad as a subsidiary alongside theLouisville & Nashville Railroad and theClinchfield Railroad. These were known collectively as the "Family Lines System." SCL continued to operate the Georgia Railroad under its initial charter; the Georgia Railroad was maintained as a separate company, with SCL leasing the rail properties. Two years later, the Georgia Railroad ended its traditional passenger service, though it continued to operate a bare-bonesmixed train service between Atlanta (Atlanta Union Station) and Augusta (Augusta Union Station).
In 1980, SCL merged withChessie System to formCSX Corporation. In 1982, SCL and L&N merged to form theSeaboard System Railroad, beginning what would be a process in which the CSX operating companies would be merged into a single railroad. The Georgia Railroad was the first to be merged away. The railroad properties of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, which had been operated under a lease for 90 years by CSX and its predecessors, were formally merged into Seaboard System Railroad. The mixed train service ended in 1983.[10]
In 1986, Seaboard System Railroad renamed itselfCSX Transportation. The same year, Georgia Railroad Bank was acquired byFirst Union; most former branches are now part ofWells Fargo. A year later, Chessie System merged into CSX Transportation.
After a period of somewhat heavy use during the CSX ownership, most through traffic has been diverted from the former Georgia Railroad mainline. As of October 2018, only a single through train in each direction daily uses the line.
On June 25, 2024 CSX unveiledES44AH No. 1834 honoring the Georgia Railroad as the 16th unit in their fleet. The unit is painted with the cab and nose in the YN3 paint of CSX with the long hood being painted in the Georgia Railroad's blue with silver stripe scheme. Before this ET44AH No. 3415 was given the Georgia Railroad's emblem on the sides of the nose.
| # | Name | Miles | Kilometers | Notes |
| 1 | Decatur, Georgia | 6 | 9.7 | |
| 2 | Stone Mountain, Georgia | 16 | 26 | |
| 3 | Lithonia, Georgia | 24 | 39 | |
| 4 | Conyers, Georgia | 31 | 50 | |
| 5 | Covington, Georgia | 41 | 66 | |
| 6 | Social Circle, Georgia | 52 | 84 | |
| 7 | Rutledge, Georgia | 59 | 95 | |
| 8 | Madison, Georgia | 68 | 109 | |
| 9 | Buckhead, Georgia | 76 | 122 | |
| 10 | Greensboro, Georgia | 88 | 142 | |
| 11 | Union Point, Georgia | 95 | 153 | |
| 12 | Crawfordville, Georgia | 107 | 172 | |
| 13 | Barnett, Georgia | 114 | 183 | NearU.S. Highway 278 andI-20 |
| 14 | Camack, Georgia | 125 | 201 | Old spelling |
| 15 | Thomson, Georgia | 134 | 216 | |
| 16 | Dearing, Georgia | 142 | 229 | |
| 17 | Saw Dust, Georgia | 146 | 235 | Now called Harlem |
| 18 | Berzelia, Georgia | 152 | 245 | Near Berzelia Pond |
| 19 | Belair, Georgia | 162 | 261 | Now called Grovetown |
| 20 | Augusta, Georgia | 171 | 275 |
Trains departed from Atlanta at 8:55 am and 7:15 pm and arrived in Augusta at 6:00 pm and 10:05 am.
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