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The Savannah-Montgomery Division

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The Savannah-Montgomery Division, or Alabama Division as it is sometimes called, which passed through my hometown of Meldrim, GA has quite an interesting history.  Originally built (in part) by the Savannah & Western Railroad (S&W; formed in June and July of 1888), a subsidiary of the Central Railroad & Banking Co, the line has seen traffic from no less than 11 railways/railroads.

The Central Rail Road & Banking Co. (CRR&B, later known as the Central of Georgia Railway) already had already built a rail line (some time around 1839) from Savannah, GA to Meldrim.  But at Meldrim, this line turned sharply northward to and through such other Effingham County towns as Eden, Marlow, Pineora, Guyton, Egypt and Oliver... and ultimately to Macon, GA by 1843.  At Macon, this Savannah-Macon line met with another, existing line that turned back south-west to Montgomery, AL.  The CRR&B apparently deemed this route too time-consuming, and began looking for another, shorter route to Montgomery from Savannah.  This eventually led to the creation of the Savannah & Western Railroad which was a consolidation of seven other railroads owned by the CRR&B.

In May 1890, the S&W built a branch line from the CRR&B's line at Meldrim almost due west to Lyons, GA where it met with another, existing line which had originally been built in early 1890 by the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SA&M).  The SA&M was later owned by Georgia and Alabama Railway (G&A), or "Savannah Short Line" as it had been nicknamed, after it was sold under foreclosure to the G&A in May 1895.  In 1896, the 57-58 mile section of track between Meldrim to Lyons ("Lyons Branch" as it was called) was leased to the G&A.  On April 1, 1896, the Seaboard Air Line Railway began operating on the Meldrim to Lyons branch.  On July 1, 1900, the Georgia and Alabama Railway was consolidated into the Seaboard Air Line Railway, which was renamed Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1946.  On July 1, 1967, the line began to see traffic of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) trains after the merger of the SAL and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL).  This lasted until 1982 when the line began seeing traffic of Seaboard System Railroad (SBD) trains after a merger between the SCL and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N).  The line saw SBD traffic until 1986 when the SBD changed its name to CSX Transportation, a division of CSX Corporation.  CSX operated trains on the line for only a very short time before leasing or selling the line to the Georgia Central (GC) Railway, which operates the line to this day.

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