…to the latest issue of Trains for the story on the Eastern Corridors. I grew up along the Fitzgerald Sub. discussed in the article, and it has been very exciting to watch this line turn into the “corridor” that it has become. It was also nice to open up an issue that didn’t have a BNSF or UP engine on the front cover with yet another article on their capacity expansion. Thanks for a job well done!
I read the referenced article just last evening and also found it very interesting, especially since there is (in my opinion) not enough coverage of “Eastern” roads and railroad history to satisfy me (having grown up in the NYC metro area).
I also read that article last night. Very good and informative. Like you, Jim, I concur that there are not enough articles/coverage of the Eastern roads and railroad history. Maybe one day, that suggestion will be corrected.
There have been a number of articles about Southeastern railroading during the past 2-3 years. It was a welcome change, because before that if it wasn’t PA/NY/New England or Upper Midwest or Far West it wasn’t worthy of coverage in TRAINS. It’s so nice to see an article about places I have been and know something about.
ANB740 - Did you say a while back that CSX was thinking about cutting back the Waycross-Valdosta-Albany(I think) line and double tracking the entire AB&C? Have you heard any more about that? Many thanks.
ANB740 I think your are right. They are double tracking the AB&C, Jessup (to Waycross) and Fizgerald Sub.'s.
Yes, thanks to “Trains” for doing this article. This one really hit close to home.
For anyone who is interested: Sessoms on the old AB&C is just a named point on the railroad, not a town or even a group of houses (may have been in the past, but not now). It is 2-3 miles west of Alma, GA, which is a town.
As originally built, the AB&C extended from Brunswick, GA (on the coast) to Manchester, where it split for Atlanta and Birmingham. Sessoms was the point on the mainline where a branch split off to go to Waycross to tap whatever traffic could be had from the ACL. The mainline continued thru Sessoms to Alma and on to Brunswick.
After WWII, the AB&C was in such bad shape that ACL (which controlled AB&C) had to either fix the AB&C or kill it. It was abandoned from Alma to Brunswick and the former branch from Sessoms to Waycross survived to form the Waycross - Manchester line. The stub from Sessoms to Alma was abandoned sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s, I believe; I remember seeing railcars in Alma at least in my early teen years, and could have been later than that.
Don’t think the sidebar in TRAINS made clear the history of that little bit of the old AB&C.
I bought a book on the AB&C a while back. The last time I was in Waycross was three years ago. I rode through a town called Pearson. I noticed the tracks coming from what I believe was Waycross that seemed to deadend right in town. Anybody familiar with this line, it didn’t appear to see much if any use.
This is all that’s left of the old ACL Waycross-Albany line. It was abandoned in 1985, and the track was subsequently ripped up from Sylvester to Pearson in 1991-92. (I went down and watched them pulling up the rails around Willacoochee in June '92…very sickening) If you pay close attention, you can see and follow the old roadbed all the way to Tifton.
thanks, yes it’s always sad to see track being removed.
Is the line from Tifton to Albany still in use? Years ago I had heard CSX sold that portion to NS, but don’t know how good the info was. I want to say a shortline is operating it now - can anyone confirm/correct? Thanks.
Does anyone know if there are any plans to double track from Manchester to Atlanta? I grew up along this line and would be interested what books ya’ll have read about the line.
The line from Sylvester (end of line) to Albany is operated by the Georgia/Florida Railnet.
There are no plans to double track that section. However, the 10 year goal (as one MoW guy put it) is to double track all segments between Manchester and Waycross that don’t involve bridges or other expensive obstructions; those will be taken care of last. This is all weighing on whether the traffic levels continue upward. I also heard through the grapevine that once the upgrades are complete, the line between Waycross and Montgomery (through Thomasville, GA) will branchlined/sold off with thru traffic transferred to the “Fitz”. Frankly, I’m not holding my breath on any of this at the moment…I’ll believe it when I see it!
Since you grew up on the Atlanta end, you might be interested in knowing that they put in a new siding north of Manchester (Persico) and another one north of Peachtree City (Aberdeen). They also stub-ended the siding at Woodbury and took it out of active service.