Hi folks, I hate to break up the discussion of wide opinion and deep thought on topics economic, political, historical and quadratical. But could someone tell me what has happened or is planned to happen to the old CofG mainline between Atlanta and Macon. I’ve been gone to long to keep up
I belive it going to stay CG
I am glad they saved some old U-Boats
kevin
The former Central of Georgia mainline between Atlanta and Macon is still owned and used by Norfolk Southern. NS has been doing a good bit of work on the line in the last year. This line is scheduled to see commuter passenger service begin as far south as Lovejoy by Sept. 2006. The track upgrade will allow 60MPH service over a 26 mile segment, according to the GA DOT pdf file linked below.
Lee
P.S. Kevin, you must be thinking of the Georgia Central’s U-Boats. The GC operates over the old MD&S (Macon, Dublin & Savannah) from Macon to Vidalia and then over the old SAL mainline from Vidalia into Savannah.
Lee
Yep! I go to Vidalia, Georgia every year to visit family friends. What’s neat is the afternoon Georgia Central freight train that runs almost daily. It will have 5 U-Boats at the head! Some of them are High-Nosed units, which means they’re either ex-Southern or ex-Norfolk & Western as both these roads favored High Noses. The shop facility is at the edge of Lyons, GA. I drove up to it on a Sunday afternoon, but stayed on the public roadway. There must have been about 40 locomotives parked there, most of them old GEs! I loved it. [:D]
On another note, I was very shocked to see that the old Station/Office in the middle of Vidalia is GONE! [:0] It was beaufiful and charming. I couldn’t believe that it was simply “torn down”. I wonder if it perhaps had caught fire. Georgia’s been pretty good about preserving historical buildings.
Anyone have any info?
Just to add a bit more, NS has made a pitch to do the upgrade work and be the operator of the Lovejoy commuter rail line. So far, Gov Bubba, err, Purdue and the the highway lobby, err, state house, haven’t scraped up any money to acutally DO anything. Don’t hold your breath.
The Vidalia depot was torn down to make room for the DOT’s widening of the adjacent highway. It will be made one-way and will be parallel to the other one-way making up U.S. HWY 280 through downtown Vidalia. The community wanted this rather than a bypass.
This has made it a bit more difficult for me to arrange trips to Vidalia, as we lost our water source at the old depot. The good news is that Vidalia is very supportive of the SAM SHORTLINE and is working out a new arrangement for us.
Also, I’d like to praise Mr. Cecil Bowden, GM at the GC, and his crews. They are a good bunch of people to work with. I have very much enjoyed working with them in getting together our trips on that end of the line.
Lee
Lee Kinnamon, Chairman
Southwest Georgia Railroad Excursion Authority
Chief Conductor
SAM SHORTLINE Excursion Train
This is good news. I went to your website and was so impressed! I’ve been visiting Vidalia for years and had wondered if passenger specials ever came through, especially since the track looks a "tad rough’. I’ll make sure to keep monitoring your website. A train trip would be great through this part of Georgia.
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone for the info. It’s good to see familiar place names!
The Georgia DOT is committed to doing the Lovejoy to Atlanta commuter line. Personally, I feel they are doing it with the expectation that if if fails they can say, “We told you so!” but I also feel they are out of tough with reality. A bunch of Atlantan are foreigners, that is they come from places up north and abroad which have had commuter rail for ages. They would use it and will do so far more than the 1,800 expected riders, especially if they make it user friendly with coffee and breakfasts available so that people will be able to completely change their mornings. It also has to go out far enough so that people don’t feel that their journey is almost over by the time they get to the rail station as it is on the northside where the MARTA north line extends only a mile or so outside the perimeter highway, I-285, and does not really invite commuters from more northerly counties unless they cannot get paid parking spaces at their companies. It seems as if the GDOT only listens to sarcastic writers of Vents in the Atlanta Journal Constitution which lambast MARTA. But the foreigners I talked with when I rode it daily told me that it was on a par (2001) with systems in their own countries or cities. It all goes back to that adage that a prophet has no honor in his own land. Neither does a commuter carrier.
Jock Ellis
[quote]
Originally posted by JOdom
Thanks to everyone for the info. It’s good to see familiar place names!
[/quoteIt would also be great to get some of those sweet onions around Febuary. I like you enjoy seeing the familular names of places in a remembered past.
NS’s cheap, cutthroat tactics in maintenance for this line have finally come back to bite 'em square in the butt.
They recently did some work on the line to get it back up to 30mph. (from its hellish 5-10mph status) The crossties they pulled up were so old that they turned into splinters! The research train came down about 2-3 weeks ago, and slammed the north end with several 10mph orders…again. The Barnesville Yard was also partially condemned until some relay ties could be put in.(you would think they could figure out something was wrong when the cars in the yard are tilting over to one side!) NS trains 389 and 379 are now permanently routed down this line, with other daily reroutes to ease congestion on the busy parallel Southern main. Nothing like seeing a modern day freight roll over jointed rails that saw steam in regular service. (keep in mind that this line was also CTC until the Southern came in w/there anti-CofG agenda and “raped” it)
anb740
ANB740, Do you live between Ideal and Rupert? [;)]
Lee
Hey, you know your mileposts! (ANB740.8; Ideal Defect Detector to be exact) I’ll be living down there soon enough in preparation for upcoming conductor training/work with the wonderful CSX railroad out of Manchester.
BTW, what’s the speed limit on the HOG east of Cordele? I know the speed on the west end was up to 40mph at one point?
When you get to Manchester remember three things (1) the er in Manchester is pronounced as an a (as in Manchesta), (2) That Jordon is pronounced Jerdan, and (3) AB&C rules
“BTW, what’s the speed limit on the HOG east of Cordele? I know the speed on the west end was up to 40mph at one point?”
The HOG has Class 2 track–25 MPH freight/30 MPH for our passenger train. The jump in maintenance costs between Class 2 and Class 3 track is steep and unwarranted by the nature of the HOG’s freight business. I’ve gotten used to 30 now, and it doesn’t seem so poky to me anymore.
(For those who are interested see http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/003/010pwhmw.asp for a good explanation of FRA track classifications.)
Lee
BTW, come ride with us on the SAM when you get down this way!
Lee
As one of those “foreigners” - I agree totally with what you say, only adding that MARTA is bit slow - slow to open and close doors at stations, slow into and out of curves, slow track speed - compared to systems elsewhere. Also, lack of graduated fare system is having a bad effect on the rail system’s budget these days. These things are fixable should MARTA ever care to do anything about it.
Concerning commuter rail, there is a commitment to build a whole network of commuter rail lines, and they whole thing has been studied to death for the past 15 years or so, all showing that the comm
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd
As one of those “foreigners” - I agree totally with what you say, only adding that MARTA is bit slow - slow to open and close doors at stations, slow into and out of curves, slow track speed - compared to systems elsewhere. Also, lack of graduated fare system is having a bad effect on the rail system’s budget these days. These things are fixable should MARTA ever care to do anything about it.
Concerning commuter rail, there is a commitment to build a whole network of commuter rail lines, and they whole thing has been studied
Wow, its cool to see all of these GA residents on here. You guys need to come up to NE GA and check out all of the fallen flags still trudging around up here. Also nice to see the Dawg fans as well.[:D]
BTW, the only thing I’ll add is that I believe that you ment to type ADM (Archer Daniels Midland). You should see Gainesville btw. They have a huge Cargill vegetable oil plant that gets hundereds of loads of soybeans as well as tanks carring the oil out. They also started using rail to get the coal for heating. Some come in and out on Cargill cars, others ADM, and then many other names as well.
Near by are at least three grain elevators for the chicken farms, and most are owned by big companies. Their are many more up and down the tracks from Gainesville.
Oh, and did you guys all see the recent article in the AJC about the proposed Belt Line?