Heart Of Georgia (HOG)

With the Midville - Swainsboro portion now operated by GA Southern Railway/Pioneer, what is the status of the rest of the HOG to Vidalia?

At first I saw where it's been approved to start rehab-ing the line sometime in 2011, but now I've heard it's been put on hold once again. ARG!

Guess I'll have to ride out there sometime in the near future and see for myself......

The intermodal service should be coming on line soon, and is attracting DC's to it's area:

http://cordeledispatch.com/local/x14395 ... ng-in-June

Cordele — Cordele Intermodal Services Inc. (CIS) plans to open its intermodal terminal in Cordele on June 1.

...

Overnight service for container traffic moving between the new terminal and Savannah will be provided by the Heart of Georgia and Georgia Central railroads. Final moves into Chatham Yard at the port will be handled by CSX.

Too bad the HOG from Swainsboro to Vidalia won't see any of the traffic. Found some other resources:

http://www.dot.state.ga.us/aboutGeorgia ... Center.pdf

I'm also adding a link for this thread to our Facebook page. The developer is really pushing FB and is trying to get to 1,000 "likes", so be sure to visit the page and share it.

https://www.facebook.com/RailroadNet

A source that works for G&W and does work for the Georgia Central (owned by G&W) told me that the HOG and GC are having a little spat on who is going to be charged what for interchanging these intermodal trains at Vidalia. I'm sure they'll settle it if they haven't done so already, but it would be very interesting if the line from Vidalia to Kirby gets rehabbed and the HOG interchanges the trains with NS in Midville, bypassing GC altogether. Food for thought? Nah.....

CIS site now says service will begin JULY 1. Is the HOG line between McRae and Vidalia going to be able to handle intermodal traffic? Have they finished rehabbing the Oconee and Ocmulgee bridges?

I may have to railfan down in Claxton come July.

July 1? Wow, sooner than I expected. Maybe they'll have the mainline moved over in Claxton by then, but at the rate the DOT has been going........

It'll be nice to snap pics of those old Southern U23B's pulling pig trains between Savannah and Vidalia.

Jeff, don't just railfan in Claxton. Start in Pembroke and work west or vice versa. Lyons, Collins, Hagan, Daisy all are nice places to watch'em come through.

G&F thanks for the tips! I wasn't aware DOT was realigning the main line. Are they moving it out of downtown? North or South? I could see why they'd do that. I've been down there only a handful of times (rattlesnake festival or kids baseball at the rec center). I'll have to research that project.

ashley2771 wrote:Is the HOG line between McRae and Vidalia going to be able to handle intermodal traffic? Have they finished rehabbing the Oconee and Ocmulgee bridges?

They're not planning on running these pig trains at a somewhat high rate of speed because obviously that would require a lot of money for additional track work. So the line should handle this new traffic at their current slow speeds (20-25mph in most places max) for now. Back in the '70s SCL ran Sealand piggyback trains through this portion of line to Savannah at 45 mph with obviously better maintained track.

Jeff Smith wrote:G&F thanks for the tips! I wasn't aware DOT was realigning the main line. Are they moving it out of downtown? North or South? I could see why they'd do that. I've been down there only a handful of times (rattlesnake festival or kids baseball at the rec center). I'll have to research that project.

They're moving it just a few yards south in town so that Hwy 280 through town could be widened. Waste of taxpayer money and resources in my opinion. They've been working on it for a few years now. The sewer/water lines all had to be redone, they tore up Hwy 280 through town.....just a mess. Even a retaining wall is put up right by where the new track will be...???? Original plan was to move it out of town...............too much money.....go figure.

If GAHSR evern comes to fruition (and I'm not making a judgement on if it should or not), I believe it would run on that line. I'd imagine a downtown stop (if one is being considered) would be better than one out in farm country. Freight, obviously, would do better with a bypass, I think.

If there had been any significant increase in traffic on Hwy 280 through Claxton over the years then I could see the justification of moving the track to widen the highway. "We invite industry" was the town's motto for years. Hardly any invitations were taken. Hwy 301 through town handles a lot more traffic....north/south (Florida). A downtown stop is when the train goes into emergency in town (har har)......not holding my breath on passenger trains polishing the rails there anytime soon.

Reportedly, rehab work such as bridge repairs and brush cutting has been completed on the Cordele-Vidalia portion of the HOG and it may start having intermodals trains running on it in the near future...

GC FINALLY delivered the first load of intermodal cars to HOG on Wednesday night... here's clip from youtube:
http://youtu.be/kfUFqezaqLk

Thanks for putting those up. I've got to get over there one day....