Georgia Southern Railway (fka Georgia Midland)

Has anyone heard how the transition between Ogeechee Rwy. and the new Georgia Midland is going? It's my understanding that the Ogeechee Rwy. name has already been painted over on the locomotives...

Ashley2771:

I am definitely behind the information curve on the current railroad news in Georgia! What line(s) will the new Georgia Midland take over from the Ogeechee Rwy, since the Ogeechee operates several lines in Georgia?

Any known reason(s) for the change in ownership?

Any other news that you are aware of?

Best wishes!

ACLfan

Ogeechee is basically dead. Georgia Midland is owned by the same company that owns Heart of Georgia. HOG is taking over the former Georgia & Florida line of Ogeechee, while the other three lines are now being operated by Georgia Midland.
BPW

Yes, the locos are already painted GMR, I understand that they will be repainted to look better in the future.
I'm hearing that this is only a short-term solution. GMR only has a 2 or 3 year lease with Ogeechee. So if the money doesn't come, they can just ditch the lines without much hassle.
Ogeechee was dead, they were flying by the seat of their pants. The problem GMR and/or HOG is having now is maintenance. Ogeechee never did any work on their lines, they just didn't have any money.
The state helps with the two lines they own, one big problem is a bridge near Midville. It needs to be fixed, otherwise the entire line will be cut off since the bridge is right near the interchange with Norfolk Southern. I'm not sure about the other lines, hopefully they aren't too bad.

Hey, I appreciate the info. update!

I was over at Americus, GA around New Years, and noticed two bay-windowed cabooses being rehabbed at HOG's Americus Yard. One was named the "City of Plains" , and the other was named the "City of Eastman". I was puzzled why HOG would name one of its cabooses after the name of a city that it didn't serve! Now, it makes sense!

Again, thanks for the info.!

ACLfan

The Dover-Statesboro line has at least three customers- a Reeves Construction Asphalt plant which gets gravel, a fertilizer plant, and a woodyard. They ran daily to Statesboro. The track conditions around Statesboro were not great.

The only customer I know of on the Midville line
was a Rayonier plant near Nunez, unless there was a customer in Swainsboro.

I visited Swainsboro and Midville recently to check out the Georgia Midland since it took over the old Ogeechee line from Midville to Nunez. They have indeed relettered the old Ogeechee locomotive in Midville to GMR. They are also replacing damaged or old ties over the whole line. There also appear to be at least three customers I could find on the line- a scrap metal operation in Modoc, another scrap metal operation in Swainsboro and the Rayonier lumber mill in Nunez. There may be more but I"m not sure...

Great news! It sounds like new life is being pumped into the old railroad!

ACLfan

Anyone know how the Georgia Midland is doing? Has the traffic improved? Any new equipment over what was on the Ogeechee Railway?

Although the track looks to be in sad shape, Georgia Midland, formerly the Ogeechee Railway, is still running to Metter to serve a farm facility.

There are 3 customers indeed on that part of the old G&F that get service: Swainsboro Recycling (scrap), Royster Clark (fertilizer/potash), and ITT Rayonier at Kirby(lumber). Just a few weeks ago we (I work for NS) were giving the GMR loads of rock for Reeves Construction to be unloaded at a spur near Kirby. Evidently, there's some road construction of sorts, possibly on U.S. 1 near Swainsboro, so we've been giving them almost "unit train" sized cuts about 2-3 times a week. They come from our customer Martin Marietta, a quarry near East Warrenton on the old S&A line, where they also regularly send loads to Dover to the GMR. I handle most of this traffic (among other traffic) from our office in Atlanta.

The rock business has slacked off as a result of the holidays, but I was told Martin Marietta will resume loading after the first of the year. As a result, we've been shoving empty rock hoppers in every available siding between Waynesboro and Bastonville!! We even had to assign one of our Dash 9's to Wrens to help the usual SD40-2 duo move this stuff along with the kaolin and chips/lumber to the yard in Millen!

But back to the GMR. I remember Swainsboro Concrete getting a few loads of rock back in the Ogeechee days, but they haven't received any more since before the GMR took over. I don't know if it's because the customer is located on very bad trackage of the former Wadley Southern and the OGEE didn't think it was worth it to repair, or if the customer went out of business or just quit receiving rail service.

Regardless, the GMR is doing quite nicely on this stretch of former G&F main, seeing as how back in the late '90s I was sending our local (G23) out of Tennille, where I was a yard clerk, over to Swainsboro about once a month.

The Millen switcher, G32, works the interchange at Midville 2-3 times a week.

It's really nice to see a seldom used line get a little life back, moreso if it's a G&F line!!!!!!!!

Nice forum, keep talking about those Georgia railroads!!!!!!

Thanks for the update! They are building a bypass around Swainsboro on U.S. 1, which may be what the rock is for. I'm glad to hear they are doing well, since they seemed to have made some investment in the line. My family lives about 15 miles from Wrens, and I'm impressed they are running dash-9s over there- the SD-40s have been a fixture for years.

Ahh, so that may be what the rock is for then.....ok.

Yeah, it's unusual to see a Dash 9 now over on the S&A helping both of the SD40-2's. I forgot exactly the tonnage rating of the SD40(-2)'s between Wrens and Waynesboro and Millen (timetable is in my truck), but I know 10,000 tons is really pushing it for 2 of them. With the increase in the rock business from East Warrenton, 10,000 tons and over has been the norm for G33's train out of Wrens. The engines are split up at Wrens when working customers: G31 uses the Dash 9 to work customers in the Wrens and East Warrenton areas, G37 will use both SD40-2's to work the kaolin plants at Stapleton, including Hadco Vet Supply located there also.

I bet it looks pretty cool/unusual to see a big ol' Dash 9 loping along the rails in East Warrenton, moreso when it's running long hood forward on the return trip!!!

Yeah, unfortunately there's only one customer left in Metter....Southern States, or what used to be Growers Supply I believe. They get a carload or two of potash/fertilizer every now and then, and that's only when they will go to Metter.

I remember back in the mid '80s when NS still ran to Metter, and there were cars spotted everywhere. There was a woodyard, 2 grain elevators, and of course the Growers Supply at the end of the line that were always choked full of cars. My dad took a picture of me hanging off the side of one of the Southern "Big John" covered hoppers at one of the grain elevators. It has been torn down for a long time now, but the spur/switch is still there unless it got took up recently.

In the early '90s a scrap/recycling yard opened up just outside of town. The OGEE put in a switch and laid down track to get to the facility. They even had a GE 44 tonner they used to switch gons within their plant. But mysteriously it went belly up sometime around the late '90s. When it was in operation, the OGEE went to Metter 5 days a week...........no more after that business left.

G&Fman wrote:There are 3 customers indeed on that part of the old G&F that get service: Swainsboro Recycling (scrap), Royster Clark (fertilizer/potash), and ITT Rayonier at Kirby(lumber)....almost "unit train" sized cuts about 2-3 times a week.

The rock business has slacked off as a result of the holidays, but I was told Martin Marietta will resume loading after the first of the year. As a result, we've been shoving empty rock hoppers in every available siding between Waynesboro and Bastonville!!

Hey G&Fman, welcome to the forum. Glad to have another person onboard who knows Georgia. You mentioned unit trains of rock are going in there for this road construction, how many carloads are you talking?

The line between Midville-Kirby is actually HOG, not GMR, even though that rented NS engine might have GMR painted on it. In either case, it's the same company out of Americus.

There are 4 active customers on the line, in ( ) are the 2004 estimated carloads they hauled last year:
IMC Fertilizer (50)
Rayonier (140)
Swainsboro Recycling (110)
Midville Warehouse (20).

So roughly 320 cars were hauled in/out of there in 2004. If new rock is being hauled in by the train load that would boost the numbers for 2005/2006.