 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2013) |
The Sandersville Railroad( reporting mark SAN) was originally operated from Tennille, Georgia, to Sandersville, Georgia and chartered in 1893 [1] as a subsidiary of the Central of Georgia Railroad.
It was extended north five miles from Sandersville to a kaolin mine and processing plants near Deepstep, GA. It continues to operate the same nine miles as of 2017 along with two branch lines and is nicknamed The Kaolin Road.
The company has its main office, dispatchers, locomotive and railcar maintenance shops, maintenance-of-way equipment shed, and locomotive fuel towers and sanding tower, all located in historic downtown Sandersville, Georgia.
The Sandersville Railroad Company owns a fleet of modern diesel electric switcher locomotives built by the Electro Motive Division of General Motors Corporation (EMD) but their first Diesel Electric Locomotive was the Fairbanks-Morse H-12-44 numbered SAN 100 that's now been long retired. They have 4 EMD SW1500s with the road numbers SAN 1100, 1300, 1400, and 1500 respectively.
The newest addition to the fleet is an EMD MP15DC purchased in October 2016 from Norfolk Southern Railroad, it has the road number SAN 1600 and was bought to replace the EMD SW1200 Road Number SAN 1200 that was sold in the spring of 2018. The SAN 1600 is as of July 2018 still in its Norfolk Southern style black and white paint but now has the Sandersville Railroad style paint job with the road number SAN 1600 to align with the rest of the fleet. The EMD SW1500 SAN 1400 was also originally a Norfolk Southern locomotive and was delivered in the black and white just as the SAN 1600 but has now been repainted to the standard Sandersville Railroad Company paint scheme of a white body with a red single stripe running along both sides of the hood ending near the belt driven radiator fan on the front of the units, with the word Sandersville in red on both sides, and red road numbers and reporting marks SAN in red on the cabs in the style of the old Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
The company also owns two slug units which the SAN refers to as "boosters". The first one is a former Rock Island Railroad Company GE (General Electric)-built Universal Series U25B road Switcher that was turned from a conventional locomotive to a Road Slug later in its life. The operators cab, auxiliary cab, diesel engine (prime mover), air compressor, and radiator were all removed from the frame, and a large concrete ballast block was installed along with a new long full length hood was installed that has electric powered traction motor blowers on each end to cool the 4 DC electric traction motors on each axle as it did when it was a regular engine. The cab has headlights on each end and a ratchet style handbrake on the B-end. The fuel tank of the engine was removed and it became a full road slug that now receives its power from whatever mother unit it is multi-unit (MU) connected to. The Rock Island Railroad later sold one of its converted GE road slugs to the Sandersville Railroad Company and it became the SAN 90. In 1994 the company bought an additional slug unit from Norfolk Southern that became the SAN 91 that has a shorter body and vertically mounted "tombstone" style headlights. All engines in the fleet have the twin "ditch" gauge lights on each end as well.
Up until the year 2009 the company also used a former Louisville & Nashville Railroad bay window caboose that's road number was SAN 60 but it was retired as the company didn't want to have to keep its old friction bearing axles constantly serviced and FRA Certified. It was taken through downtown Sandersville, Georgia during the October of year 2009 "Kaolin Festival Parade" on the back of a lowboy tuck trailer in place of the railroad's normally used steam engine "General" parade float. After this, it was offloaded by mobile cranes back onto the tracks at the bulk transfer yard and then carried back to the Sandersville Yard by one of the locomotives to be parked behind 3 former Illinois Central Railroad wide-vision cupola cabooses owned by the company.
The Kaolin Road used to also own cushion underframe boxcars but they were all retired and sold to Norfolk Southern. The other fleet of railcars the company owns is a fleet of large and small covered hoppers used to transport bulk (powder) kaolin clay and a fleet of open-top hoppers for transporting pulpwood chips to paper mills.
They service the many Kaolin processing plants in the area such as the Kentucky Tennessee Clay Company and Imerys Pigments Plant 2 both in Deepstep, and the Imerys Pigments Plant 1, KaMin LLC., Burgess Pigment Company, and Thiele Kaolin Company plants, all in Sandersville. The Railroad also services Bulk Chemical Services, Fulghum Fibers Pulpwood Chip Mill, and the two Duraline pipe manufacturing plants. The profitable road also handles inbound and outbound grain shipments. The company interchanges in Tennille, Georgia with the Norfolk Southern Railway Company's Savannah District Trains of their Georgia Division. The NS trains 191 and 192 from Brosnan Yard in Macon, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina and the NS Trains 372 and 373 with their companion NS Trains 378 and 377 from Brosnan Yard in Macon, Georgia to Dillard Yard in Savannah, Georgia all make pick ups and drop offs in Tennille for the locals NS G23 and G24 as well as the Sandersville Railroad Company.
In 2018, NS began operating an evening yard switcher to switch inbound cars from Macon, Savannah, and Augusta. The Sandersville Railroad has a new bulk transfer (Transflow) terminal located on Waco Mill Road near Tennille that offloads bulk products into waiting B&H Transfer Company tractor-trailer rigs. This facility is located across the road from the mainline and freight yard on the site of a former pulpwood loading yard that the company used to load pulpwood onto flatcars for transport to paper mills.
The company also installed a state-of-the-art weigh-in-motion scale near its Waco Mill Yard in 2002 that weighs trains after being activated by a radio link from the locomotive. It lets the crews know it's working by activating the yellow and red signals and by speaking a computer radio message over the road channel. The scales transmit a weight chart to the office downtown so they will know which cars are overloaded and which ones are not. The Sandersville Railroad Company is one of the most profitable and professional shortline railroads in North America and has a well-maintained mainline of 132 and 136 pound-per-foot rail.
The Kaolin Road has been privately owned by the Tarbuttons of Sandersville, Georgia since 1916. Ben Tarbutton III is acting President of the SAN. His grandfather was also once president of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The Tarbutton family still runs the company daily and can be found in the main office in Sandersville during operations. Mr. Ben J. Tarbutton and Mr. Hugh M. Tarbutton had been at the helm of the company for many years. Mr. Hugh died in 2015 but his brother continues to run the railroad while Mr. Hugh's son Charles Tarbutton runs the trucking company which no longer has any affiliation with the railroad other than utilizing the railroad's transload facility.
A switcher locomotive, shunter locomotive, or shifter locomotive is a locomotive used for maneuvering railway vehicles over short distances. Switchers do not usually move trains over long distances. Instead, they typically assemble trains in order for another locomotive to take over. Switchers often operate in a railyard or make short transfer runs. They may serve as the primary motive power on short branch lines or switching and terminal railroads.
The SD80MAC was a 5,000 horsepower (3.7 MW) C-C diesel-electric locomotive. It was powered by a 20-cylinder version of EMD's 710G prime mover, and was the second diesel locomotive by GM-EMD to use a V20 engine, since EMD's SD45 series. It introduced a wide radiator housing similar to GE Transportation locomotives and the placement of dynamic brakes at the rear of the locomotive, which is a quieter location, features that were incorporated into the SD90MAC and SD70ACe models. Key spotting differences between the SD80MAC and SD90MAC include no external rear sandbox on the SD90MAC, no rear lighted number boards on the SD90MAC, and the placement of the front numberboards. The SD80MAC also had recessed red marker lights in the nose, an identifying feature unique to Conrail (CR) locomotives, although Norfolk Southern (NS) had removed the lights on most of their former Conrail engines.
The EMD F7 is a model of 1,500-horsepower (1,100 kW) diesel-electric locomotive produced between February 1949 and December 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) and General Motors Diesel (GMD).
The EMD SD70 is a series of diesel-electric locomotives produced by the US company Electro-Motive Diesel. This locomotive family is an extension and improvement of the EMD SD60 series. Production commenced in late 1992 and since then over 5,700 units have been produced; most of these are the SD70M, SD70MAC, and SD70ACe models. While the majority of the production was ordered for use in North America, various models of the series have been used worldwide. All locomotives of this series are hood units with C-C trucks, except the SD70ACe-P4 and SD70MACH which have a B1-1B wheel configuration, and the SD70ACe-BB, which has a B+B-B+B wheel arrangement.
The EMD SD90MAC is a model of 6,000 hp (4,470 kW) C-C diesel-electric locomotive produced by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). It is, with the SD80MAC, one of the largest single-engined locomotives produced by EMD and among the most powerful diesel-electric locomotives, surpassed only by the dual-engined DDA40X.
The EMD SW1 is a 600-horsepower (450 kW) diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Corporation between December 1938 and November 1953. Final assembly was at EMD's plant at LaGrange (McCook) Illinois. The SW1 was the second generation of 3,402 cu in (55.75 L) switcher from EMD, succeeding the SC and SW. The most significant change from those earlier models was the use of an engine of EMD's own design, the then-new 567 engine, here in 600 hp (450 kW) V6 form. 661 locomotives of this design were built, with a gap in production between March 1943 and September 1945 due to World War II.
The EMD SD40-2 is a 3,000-horsepower (2,200 kW) C-C diesel-electric locomotive built by EMD from 1972 to 1989.
The EMD SD60 is a 3,800 horsepower (2,800 kW), six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division, intended for heavy-duty drag freight or medium-speed freight service. It was introduced in 1984, and production ran until 1995.
Electro-Motive Diesel is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. Electro-Motive Diesel traces its roots to the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation, founded in 1922 and purchased by General Motors in 1930. After purchase by GM, the company was known as GM's Electro-Motive Division. In 2005, GM sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners, and in 2010, EMD was sold to Progress Rail, a subsidiary of the American heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar. Upon the 2005 sale, the company was renamed to Electro-Motive Diesel.
The EMD GP7 is a four-axle (B-B) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954.
The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 16-cylinder engine, which generates 2,000 horsepower.
The EMD GP59 is a 4-axle diesel locomotive model built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1985 and 1989. Power was provided by a 12-cylinder EMD 710G3A diesel engine, which could produce 3,000 horsepower (2,200 kW). This locomotive shared the same common frame with the EMD GP60, giving it an overall length of 59 feet 9 inches (18.21 m). It featured a 3,700-US-gallon fuel tank. 36 examples of this locomotive were built including three demonstrators. Norfolk Southern placed the only order for the GP59 and also acquired the three demonstrators which featured an aerodynamic cab.
In railroading, a slug is a version of a diesel-electric locomotive which lacks a prime mover, and often a cab. It derives the electrical power needed to operate its traction motors and motor controls from a fully-powered mother locomotive. When coupled together it takes advantage of the excess current that the mother's diesel-electric locomotive produces at low speed, providing additional horsepower and braking at such operation without the expense of a full locomotive.
In rail transport, a cow-calf is a set of diesel switcher locomotives. The set usually is a pair; some three-unit sets were built, but this was rare. A cow is equipped with a cab; a calf is not. The two are coupled together and equipped with multiple unit train control so that both locomotives can be operated from the single cab.
The Commonwealth Railway, Inc. is a United States Class III short-line railroad operating 27 miles (43 km) of track of a former Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railway line from Suffolk, Virginia, to Portsmouth, Virginia. The main office is in the Wilroy area of Suffolk. Commonwealth Railway was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1996 and is a part of Norfolk Southern's "Thoroughbred Shortline Program". It interchanges with Norfolk Southern and CSX in Norfolk, Virginia.
The SD20-2 was a type of diesel-electric locomotive created in 1979/1980 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad by rebuilding EMD SD35 locomotives. Five of the B&O's SD35 fleet were rebuilt at their Cumberland Yard by fitting a non-turbocharged EMD 645 engine and upgraded electrical systems. They were placed in service at the B&O Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati, Ohio attached to slugs, engineless units with traction motors that draw their power from the "mother" unit.
Union Railroad is a Class III switching railroad located in Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania. The company is owned by Transtar, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, after being acquired from U.S. Steel in 2021. The railroad's primary customers are the three plants of the USS Mon Valley Works, the USS Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the USS Irvin Works and the USS Clairton Coke Works.
The Southeastern Railway Museum is a railroad museum located in Duluth, Georgia, in suburban Atlanta.
The Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad (SMRR) is a standard gauge railroad that circles the perimeter of Stone Mountain Park in a loop, and provides views of the mountain en route.
Columbus and Chattahoochee Railroad is a 26-mile-long (42 km) freight railroad running from Girard, Alabama, to Mahrt, Alabama, and has shared trackage rights with the Norfolk Southern to use the track between NS Columbus yard in Columbus, Georgia, and Girard, Alabama. This track runs concurrent with 9th St. in downtown Columbus and is shared as part of the designated yard limits for Columbus Yard. CHH interchanges with the Norfolk Southern at Columbus Yard. Locomotives are kept at the yard and crew office for Georgia Southwestern Railroad yard in Columbus.