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Overview | |
---|---|
Locale | Southwest Georgia |
Dates of operation | 1890–Unknown |
Successor | Georgia and Alabama Railroad |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
The Abbeville and Waycross Railroad was incorporated in 1889. The company started building a line between Abbeville, Georgia and Fitzgerald, Georgia in 1890 and finished in 1896. A thirteen-mile stretch of track between Abbeville and Bowens Mill was opened in 1890 and in 1891 was extended to Lulaville. In 1896, entrepreneur John Skelton Williams bought the Abbeville and Waycross Railroad and extended it nine miles from Fitzgerald, Georgia to Ocilla, Georgia. Shortly after that, the Abbeville and Waycross Railroad became part of the Georgia and Alabama Railway (which operated the former Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway).
In January 1899, John Skelton Williams's syndicate offered to purchase a majority of shares in railroads along the east coast of the United States that would become the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. By 1900, the Georgia and Alabama Railway formally became part of the Seaboard Air Line. John Skelton Williams served as the first president of the Seaboard Air Line, and he would later serve as the United States Comptroller of the Currency. The Abbeville and Waycross Railroad became the Seaboard Air Line's Ocilla Subdivision. [1]
In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line merged with its rival, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and the combined company was named the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The tracks from Abbeville to Fitzgerald were abandoned in 1971, but the tracks from Fitzgerald remained in operation until 1990.
Milepost | City/Location | Station [1] [2] | Connections and notes |
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SLA 636.1 | Abbeville | Abbeville | junction with Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SAL) |
SLA 641.8 | Browning | ||
SLA 648.5 | Bowens Mill | ||
SLA 651.9 | Queensland | ||
SLA 653.6 | Lulaville | ||
SLA 658.0 | Fitzgerald | Fitzgerald | junction with Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad (ACL) |
SLA 666.8 | Ocilla | Ocilla | junction with:
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The Waycross Short Line was the unofficial name of a railroad line built by Henry B. Plant that ran from Waycross, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida on the St. Johns River. The line through Georgia was chartered by Plant as the Waycross and Florida Railroad and the Florida segment was chartered as the East Florida Railway. The line crossed the Georgia/Florida border just south of Folkston, Georgia at the St. Marys River.
The Folkston Cutoff is a railroad line in southern Georgia. It runs from Jesup southwest to Folkston, a distance of 54 miles. It was built in 1901 by the Plant System to allow trains from the northeast to Florida to bypass their busy terminal in Waycross.
The Carolina Central Railroad, was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1855 as the Wilmington and Charlotte Railroad and was renamed the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad shortly after. It was reorganized as the Carolina Central Railway in 1873. It built 152 miles (245 km) of track, in two unconnected sections, in the southern part of North Carolina. The company was again reorganized as the Carolina Central Railroad in 1880. In 1900, the Carolina Central Railroad was merged into the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Its lines are now owned by CSX Transportation.
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