Many, many years ago, there was an ending, “soft news” report on CBS about a stretch of RR owned by then SCL was forced, by some earlier, obscure RR agreement, to provide a lone passenger car on the end of all its through freights in the region. The line was in GA and originally owned by the Central of Georgia RR, I believe. Anyhow, there was one relatively older person who insisted on regularly riding on the train, with all of the stops in the intermediate cities to switch/pick up/drop off freight (hence the soft news story). My question: Was this just another feature of the RR regulation of those days, or are there any other special kinds of contracts or agreements that RR freight companies have previously entered into that require them to “provide” that kind of service?
Central of Georgia was an ‘independent’ railroad that was aligned with the Southern, the remaining parts of which are a part of todays Norfolk Southern. I believe the run you are refering to is the Georgia Railroad and Banking Co. which was a part of the Family Lines operating organization and is now a part of CSX as the Georgia SD running between Augusta and Atlanta with a branch from Camak to Milledgeville. The Georgia Railroad also had a branch that operated to Athens, which has been sold off to a short line operator or in part abandoned.
The ‘Mixed’ freight & passenger run may have been required on one of two fronts. Either ICC regulations at the time, or State of Georgia tax regulations that benefited the company by saying it operated ‘passenger’ service in the state of Georgia.
In it’s day the CofG operated a number of passenger trains as an intermediate carrier on the Chicago to Florida routes, as well a several ‘Streamliners’ in the state of Georgia…the Nancy Hanks and the Man-O-War are two that come to mind.
IIRC the State of Georgia granted a property tax exemption to the Georgia Railroad so long as it continued to operate passenger service on its lines. This service continued into the 1980’s and was even listed in Amtrak timetables as “service by other carriers” along with Southern and Rio Grande. Someone else can probably provide a date when SCL bought the physical property of the Georgia Railroad but no longer operated it under the original charter of the road.
In the early 80’s I shot the lone passenger car leaving Augusta on its way to Atlanta. Sorry to say I was on the wrong side of the tracks for good lighting. Phil
Southern, Rio Grande and Rock Island did not join Amtrak in 1971 and thus were required to continue operating their passenger service. The Rock Island was able to eventually to discontinue its Peoria and Rock Island trains. Southern discontinued all of its trains except the Crescent before it eventually joined Amtrak. The Rio Grande had only the Zephyr when it joined Amtrak.
In the United States, the Alaska Railroad is still running long distance passenger trains. I am going to disqualify dinner trains and tourist trains like the American Orient Express , the D&RGW Ski train and the former Montana Daylight.
As far as the lower 48 States go, I have this run down of non Amtrak trains and when they ceased;
1-The Southern Railway ran from Salisbury to Asheville (139 miles) until August 8, 1975.
2-Conrail ran from Cleveland to Youngstown (68 miles) until Jan.14,1977. I don’t know if that should be classed as a commuter train or if 68 miles is long distance. Conrail got this train from the Erie Lackawanna. Conrail also ran from Chicago to Valparaiso Indiana but that was only about 43 miles.
3-The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific could not afford to join Amtrak and so they ran from Chicago to Peoria (161 miles) and to Rock Island (181 miles) until Jan 1, 1979
4-The Southern dropped the Southern Cresent (1,153 miles) on Feb 1, 1979, when Amtrak took over.
5-Autotrain ran until May 1, 1981 between Sanford, Florida and Lorton, Virginia (861 miles). They also had a run between Sanford and Louisville, Kentucky (1,004 miles). Amtrak resurrected the Lorton-Sanford route on Thanksgiving Day 1983. The Louisville route ended on Sept. 4, 1977 and used the same route as Amtrak’s Floridian.
6-The Denver and Rio Grande Western dropped Grand Juction to Salt Lake City (255 miles) on Apr. 14,1983. This train may have gone to Ogden.
7-The Denver and Rio Grande Western dropped Denver to Grand Juction (275 miles) on Apr. 24, 1983.
8-The Georgia Railroad dropped their branchline mixed trains on Apr 29, 1983. Washington to Barnett was only 17 miles and Macon to Camak was 79 miles.
9-The Georgia Railroad dropped Atlanta to Augusta (17
BaltACD has it exactly right, at least as far as my limited knowledge goes. TRAINS had an article on the mixed train written by someone who had made the trip; don’t remember what year, but would guess it was close to the time the service ended.
One of the best articles about the Georgia Railroad mixed trains was in an early '80’s issue of Passenger Trains Journal.
I rode these trains many times in the late '70’s when I was a teenager. My friends and I would ride from Thomson to Camak on train 103 and back on 108. The fare was $0.35 each way. The trains usually had 5 to 7 diesels and well over a hundred cars. The coach was almost always in front of the caboose. The engineers did not like to stop completely since there is a slight grade westbound out of Thomson, so we would have to make a moving boarding (with a little help from the conductor or brakeman)… It was tough for the engineers to keep such a long train going slow, so nearly every time, the train would stop a hundred yards after we had provided everyone at the main street crossing a little entertainment.
The coaches were always dusty, both inside and out. However, when the Pullman Alabama River was replacing one of the coaches, we rode in very nice and clean surroundings but that only happened rarely.
Usually, the trainmen wanted us to ride in the caboose. Rules stated that a trainman had to ride with the passengers. Since the caboose was always cleaner than the coach, I can see why. We usually preferred the caboose too since they gave us free run of the cupola or bay window.
I remember one late night trip back from Camak. My parents’ house was close to the tracks and a couple of miles west of the depot. I asked the conductor if they could let us off at the foot path people had worn thru the weeds down the embankment at West View Cementery. The engineer was able to stop the drop steps of the coach right at the foot path. Other than the thoughts that go thru ones mind during a late night walk (trot/run) thru a cementery everything on that trip went smooth.
We never did encounter other passengers when we rode the mixed trains. But the colo
Dale, thanks for the breakdown on all those runs. Wow, I’d uv given my eye teeth to ride in the caboose of one of those passenger trains for a buck!! [:X] Did all of the passenger cars look like the business specials we see for RR brass these days, or were they all silver? To those of you who mentioned dinner trains, I read about one where very wealthy Wall St. execs who live/commute from N. Jersey commissioned a private “commuter” train for themselves for the same purpose. Have any of you heard of this?
In the United States, the Alaska Railroad is still running long distance passenger trains. I am going to disqualify dinner trains and tourist trains like the American Orient Express , the D&RGW Ski train and the former Montana Daylight.
As far as the lower 48 States go, I have this run down of non Amtrak trains and when they ceased;
1-The Southern Railway ran from Salisbury to Asheville (139 miles) until August 8, 1975.
2-Conrail ran from Cleveland to Youngstown (68 miles) until Jan.14,1977. I don’t know if that should be classed as a commuter train or if 68 miles is long distance. Conrail got this train from the Erie Lackawanna. Conrail also ran from Chicago to Valparaiso Indiana but that was only about 43 miles.
3-The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific could not afford to join Amtrak and so they ran from Chicago to Peoria (161 miles) and to Rock Island (181 miles) until Jan 1, 1979
4-The Southern dropped the Southern Cresent (1,153 miles) on Feb 1, 1979, when Amtrak took over.
5-Autotrain ran until May 1, 1981 between Sanford, Florida and Lorton, Virginia (861 miles). They also had a run between Sanford and Louisville, Kentucky (1,004 miles). Amtrak resurrected the Lorton-Sanford route on Thanksgiving Day 1983. The Louisville route ended on Sept. 4, 1977 and used the same route as Amtrak’s Floridian.
6-The Denver and Rio Grande Western dropped Grand Juction to Salt Lake City (255 miles) on Apr. 14,1983. This train may have gone to Ogden.
7-The Denver and Rio Grande Western dropped Denver to Grand Juction (275 miles) on Apr. 24, 1983.
8-The Georgia Railroad dropped their branchline mixed trains on Apr 29, 1983. Washington to Barnett was only 17 miles and Macon to Camak was 79 miles.