Georgia Railroad: Map, History, Logo, Rosters

Published: October 17, 2026

The Georgia Railroad was the railroad of the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company. Reporting mark GA. The main line ran from Augusta to Atlanta, 171 miles, with a branch from Union Point to Athens and the Macon Road from Camak to Macon. Headquarters were in Augusta. The company chartered the railroad in 1833, added banking in 1836, and leased the line in 1881. The Seaboard Coast Line bought the railroad properties from the banking company on November 4, 1982.

The banking company held a large block of Atlanta & West Point stock and an interest in the Western Railway of Alabama. Those two railroads, operated together, were the West Point Route. The Georgia Railroad kept its own locomotives, its own shops at Augusta, and its own mark. The diesels below are the locomotives that carried Georgia numbers. GP7 No. 1026 is at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth.

Georgia Railroad F3A No. 1001 arriving at Decatur, Georgia, with train 2 on April 13, 1963

Georgia Railroad F3A No. 1001 arrives at Decatur, Georgia, with train 2 on April 13, 1963. Roger Puta photo.

On this page: Augusta to Atlanta · Branches · The 1881 lease · At a glance · Passenger trains and mixed trains · Steam · Diesels · Family Lines and CSX

Augusta to Atlanta

Athens citizens led by James Camak took a charter on December 21, 1833, for a railroad between Athens and Augusta. They met at Camak’s house in Athens on March 10, 1834, accepted the charter, and elected him president. Construction started at Augusta in 1835. In 1836 the charter was amended so the company could carry on a banking business, and the name became the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company. John Edgar Thomson, a young engineer from Philadelphia, became chief engineer in 1834. His assistant, Richard Peters, located most of the line and became superintendent in 1837. Augustan John Pendleton King was president from 1841 to 1878.

Thomson’s location ran west from Augusta. C. J. Marsh Jr. credits him with eighty miles, as far as the Oconee River west of Greensboro, laid out so the railroad needed no bridge. The town of Thomson, on that line, carries the engineer’s name. He left to become chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad and, in 1852, its president. The act that renamed Marthasville as Atlanta, on December 26, 1845, used the name he had proposed.

The original Athens branch, 39 miles from Union Point, opened in December 1841 and ran with horse cars until 1847. The line toward Atlanta was finished in 1845. Marsh dates the arrival at the settlement then called Marthasville, later Atlanta, to 1844, and he puts the Augusta–Atlanta distance at 171 miles. That line became the main line. It was built to the South’s 5-foot gauge. On May 29–31, 1886, with the rest of the southern railroads, it was narrowed to 4 feet 8½ inches.

At Augusta the railroad met the South Carolina Railroad and a road to Charleston. At Atlanta it met the Western & Atlantic, the state railroad toward Chattanooga, and the roads coming up from Macon. The Central of Georgia, building out of Savannah, was the rival for the same cities. Cotton and the products of the plantations and the forests moved toward Augusta. Manufactured goods moved inland. In 1863 the line could move about 800 tons of freight a day and stood among the stronger railroads of the Confederacy. The Georgia Railroad & Banking Company had owned at least 162 enslaved people, used to build and maintain the railroad. After Atlanta fell in the late summer of 1864, Union troops destroyed the track from that city to the Oconee River and left the embankments.

The Georgia Railroad logo. The railroad’s mark was GA.

Branches

The longest branch was the Macon Road. The Macon & Augusta Railroad was building it when the Georgia Railroad leased the unfinished line in 1867. The branch was completed in 1873, 78 miles from Camak to Macon, and it was merged into the Georgia Railroad in 1878. A shorter line, the Union Point & White Plains, was built in 1889 and abandoned in 1927. The Washington branch ran 18 miles from Barnett to Washington. The Monroe branch ran 10 miles from Social Circle to Monroe. Marsh also names the Washington & Lincolnton, the Elberton & Eastern, the Lexington Terminal, the Milstead, and the Milledgeville Railway among the short lines the company nurtured. Those feeders lived on cotton, lumber, and farm freight, and they were abandoned as that traffic faded.

On the main line the through freights were Nos. 209, 210, and 211. They moved bridge traffic between Atlanta and Augusta and did their station work at Camak, where the Macon Road and the Savannah & Atlanta met the main line. Local freights covered the online customers and fed the branch mixed trains. In 1929 the railroad handled just over 100,000 carloads. Forest products, clay, gravel, cotton, and cottonseed were the online freight. Coal, flour, petroleum, sugar, textiles, and manufactured goods came from the connections. Georgia Power’s plant on Lake Sinclair, near Milledgeville, turned the outer Macon Road into a coal railroad in the early 1960s. A connecting track of about one mile at Camak let those trains run between Atlanta and Milledgeville without turning the power.

1940 Official Guide map showing the Georgia Railroad, the Atlanta and West Point, and the Western Railway of Alabama

A March, 1940 Official Guide map of the Georgia Railroad, the Atlanta and West Point, and the Western Railway of Alabama. American-Rails.com collection

The 1881 lease

Banking had become the more profitable side of the company. On June 1, 1881, William M. Wadley, president of the Central of Georgia, leased the railroad properties for 99 years. The lease covered the Georgia Railroad and the banking company’s interests in the Atlanta & West Point and the Western Railway of Alabama. Wadley assigned it jointly to the Central of Georgia and the Louisville & Nashville. The Interstate Commerce Commission’s valuation of the Central records the Central’s half of that lease at $300,000 a year. The property then leased was 307 miles, the Augusta–Atlanta line and the branches to Athens and Macon. The Official Railway List still showed 307 miles in 1889, with 48 locomotives, and again in 1894, with 57 locomotives.

The Central entered receivership in 1892. In 1898 the reorganized Central sold its half of the Georgia lease to the Louisville & Nashville. In 1899 the L&N assigned that half to the Atlantic Coast Line. The Coast Line bought control of the L&N in November 1902 and left the L&N to run its own railroad. From then on the two lessees were the Atlantic Coast Line and the Louisville & Nashville. The Georgia Railroad & Banking Company remained the owner. The railroad kept Georgia letters on the locomotives and Georgia men in the Augusta shops.

The same valuation describes the Atlanta & West Point as it stood in those years. The Louisville & Nashville and the Atlantic Coast Line controlled it jointly, through 3,118 shares they owned and the voting power of 9,361 shares owned by the Georgia Rail Road & Banking Company. The Georgia company’s investment had built that route. Operation of the West Point Route is on its own page.

At a glance

Item	Detail
Company	Georgia Railroad & Banking Company
Mark	GA
Headquarters	Augusta
Charter	December 21, 1833. Accepted March 10, 1834. Banking added in 1836
Main line	Augusta to Atlanta, 171 miles. Completed in 1845
Athens branch	Union Point to Athens, 39 miles, December 1841. Horse cars until 1847
Macon Road	Camak to Macon, 78 miles, completed 1873, merged 1878
Mileage in the lease	307 miles in 1881, and the same figure in the lists for 1889 and 1894
Gauge	5 feet, then 4 feet 8½ inches from May 29–31, 1886
Lease	June 1, 1881, 99 years, jointly to the Central of Georgia and the Louisville & Nashville
Diesels	44 locomotives that carried Georgia numbers. GP16 4975 is GP9 1042
Sale of the railroad	Seaboard Coast Line, November 4, 1982. Main-line mixed trains lasted until May 6, 1983
Line today	CSX Transportation still uses the Augusta–Atlanta main line

Passenger trains and mixed trains

After 1945 the main line still had four passenger trains. Nos. 1 and 2 ran by day. Nos. 3 and 4 ran by night. The night trains carried a Pullman between Augusta and Atlanta, and through cars for Charleston and Wilmington on the Atlantic Coast Line. All four trains handled a heavy express and mail business, with Railway Post Office cars for the towns along the line. That mail work on the night trains ended in the fall of 1967. Nos. 3 and 4 came off in March 1968. The day trains were the last regular heavyweight passenger runs on the railroad, in Georgia Railroad colors, behind the blue-and-silver F units.

In Atlanta the Georgia Railroad’s passenger trains used Union Station, with the Louisville & Nashville. The West Point Route used Terminal Station, with the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Central of Georgia. Train 4, in the April 1963 photograph below, was at Terminal Station. Locomotives were maintained at Augusta. West Point Route locomotives were maintained at Montgomery.

Georgia Railroad FP7 No. 1004 ahead of train 1 at Decatur, Georgia, in April 1963

Georgia Railroad FP7 No. 1004 ahead of train 1, Augusta to Atlanta, at Decatur in April 1963. Rick Burn photo.

Georgia Railroad FP7 No. 1003 with train 4 at Atlanta Terminal Station in April 1963

Georgia Railroad FP7 No. 1003 with train 4, Atlanta to Augusta, at Atlanta Terminal Station in April 1963. Rick Burn photo.

On July 1, 1969, trains 1 and 2 began to handle as many as 50 loaded through freight cars. Those trains were called the Super Mixeds. In 1969, Atlanta & West Point coach 120 and Western Railway of Alabama coach 106, relettered for the Georgia Railroad, replaced the heavyweight coaches on those trains. On March 29, 1972, trains 1 and 2 came off. Those coaches then rode freights 103 and 108, and the limit of 50 cars ended the same day. The branch lines had been running mixed trains, a Ten-Wheeler or a road-switcher and a combine, for years before the main line did. Augusta Union Station, which this railroad shared with the Atlantic Coast Line, closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1972.

Georgia Railroad timetables from the March, 1940 Official Guide of the Railways. American-Rails.com collection.

Steam

The steam list is in Richard E. Prince’s Steam Locomotives and History: Georgia Railroad and West Point Route (1962). Ten-Wheelers were the most numerous type. No. 253 had been built by Rogers in 1907 as Western of Alabama 150, and later rebuildings changed the cylinders, the valve gear, the trailing truck, and the tender. No. 222 was photographed at Milledgeville on April 8, 1954, and is identified as the last steam locomotive in service. By 1914 the road also had American-type engines, six-wheel switchers, Moguls, four Lima Mikados, and a pair of light Pacifics. Lima Mikado 321 was one of seven built in the mid-1920s and was still on train 2 out of Atlanta in April 1950.

From the United States Railroad Administration years, 1918–1920, the railroad came away with a small group of standard Mikados and eight-wheel switchers. Larger Ten-Wheelers were rebuilt between 1920 and 1942 for the branches and the secondary trains. In 1943 four Clinchfield K-1 Mikados came to the Georgia Railroad: Nos. 402, 403, 406, and 407. One eight-wheel switcher came from the Detroit Terminal. After 1954 the four main-line passenger trains were an assignment for the F units.

Diesels

The first diesel was NW2 No. 901, Electro-Motive serial 6194, in April 1948. The first road diesel was F3A No. 1001, serial 7483, in October 1948, bought to cover the four daily trips on the Macon Road. The list below is every locomotive that carried a Georgia Railroad number. A rebuild keeps the row of the locomotive it was rebuilt from. GP16 4975 is GP9 1042. FP7 1005, GP7 1019, and GP7 1020 came from the Atlanta & West Point. Baldwin switcher 921 went to the Atlanta & West Point as No. 675. The early cabs were blue and silver, and a later passenger scheme was solid blue. The GP40s of 1967 and 1968 came in solid black. The GP38-2s came in Family Lines paint.

Model	Numbers	Qty	Serial	Order	Built	Notes
NW2	901	1	6194		April 1948	To Seaboard System 24
NW2	902	1	8022		March 1949	To Seaboard System 25
NW2	903	1	8023		April 1949
NW2	904–905	2	8024–8025		September 1949	To Seaboard System 26 and 27
SW9	906–907	2	15604–15605		October 1951	906 to Seaboard System 203
DS-4-4-1000	921	1	74205		June 1949	To Atlanta & West Point 675
F3A	1001	1	7483		October 1948	Trade-in to Electro-Motive
FP7	1002	1	7605		November 1949	Trade-in to Electro-Motive
FP7	1003	1	8322		November 1949	Trade-in to Electro-Motive
FP7	1004	1	8870		February 1950	Trade-in to Electro-Motive
FP7	1005	1	8020		August 1949	Ex-Atlanta & West Point 551
GP7	1019	1	8868		February 1950	Ex-Atlanta & West Point 571. To Seaboard System 703
GP7	1020	1	11876		August 1950	Ex-Atlanta & West Point 572
GP7	1021	1	8871		April 1950	To Seaboard System 707
GP7	1022	1	9081		August 1950	To Seaboard System 709, then Valdosta Southern 184
GP7	1023–1024	2	9077–9078		October 1950	1024 to Seaboard System 717
GP7	1025–1026	2	12000–12001		October 1950	1025 to Seaboard System 719. 1026 is at the Southeastern Railway Museum, Duluth
GP7	1027–1028	2	13024–13025		January 1951	1027 stripped for parts. 1028 to Seaboard System 722
GP7	1029	1	14984		September 1951	To Seaboard System 723
GP7	1030	1	17064		August 1952	Trade-in to Electro-Motive
GP7	1031–1032	2	17555–17556		October 1952	1031 to Seaboard System 730. 1032 to Seaboard System 732, then the North Carolina Port Authority
GP7	1033–1034	2	18280–18281		April 1953	Trade-in to General Electric
GP7	1035	1	18722		November 1953	To Seaboard System 733
GP7	1036	1	18723		November 1953	Wrecked. Trade-in to Electro-Motive
GP9	1040–1042	3	19515–19517		May 1954	1041 trade-in to General Electric. 1042 rebuilt as GP16 4975, later Seaboard System 4975
GP40	751	1	33100		May 1967	To Seaboard System 6653
GP40	752	1	33097		May 1967	To Seaboard System 6654
GP40	753–754	2	33883–33884		July 1968	To Seaboard System 6655 and 6656
GP40-2	755–756	2	5814-1, 5814-2	5814	December 1972	To Seaboard System 6643 and 6644
GP38-2	6009–6010	2			April 1979	Family Lines paint. To Seaboard System 6009 and 6010
GP38-2	6051–6052	2			March 1980	Family Lines paint. To Seaboard System 6051 and 6052

The rows total 44 locomotives. Eight of them were switchers, the five NW2s, the two SW9s, and the Baldwin. After 1954 those eight covered Atlanta and Augusta, and the road-switchers covered the freight.

Family Lines and CSX

From 1972 through 1982 the Seaboard Coast Line Industries marketed the Georgia Railroad with the Seaboard Coast Line, the Louisville & Nashville, the Clinchfield, the Atlanta & West Point, and the Western Railway of Alabama under the name Family Lines. Each company kept its mark. GP38-2s 6009 and 6010 were delivered in that paint in April 1979. Nos. 6051 and 6052 followed in March 1980.

On November 4, 1982, the Seaboard Coast Line acquired the Georgia Railroad properties from the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. On December 29, 1982, the Seaboard Coast Line and the Louisville & Nashville merged into the Seaboard System. The mixed trains outlasted that merger. The branch-line mixeds made their last runs on April 29, 1983. On May 6, 1983, the last main-line mixeds left both ends of the railroad. Seaboard System 6051, named Franklin M. Garrett, left Hulsey Yard in Atlanta for Harrisonville Yard in Augusta. CSX Transportation dates from July 1, 1986. The Augusta–Atlanta main line is still part of CSX.

Seaboard System abandoned the Union Point–Athens line in November 1984. A stub of 0.44 mile, from downtown Athens east to Old Winterville Road, lasted until 1997. The Macon–Milledgeville piece of the Macon Road was abandoned on December 15, 1984. Camak to Milledgeville stayed in service for coal to Plant Harllee Branch. The Washington branch is now the Georgia Woodlands Railroad. The Monroe branch is now the Great Walton Railroad.

Sources

railga.com, Georgia Railroad, Steve Storey. Charter of December 21, 1833, the March 10, 1834 organization, Thomson from 1834, the Athens branch, the 1845 completion, the Macon Road, the 1881 lease and the 1898 and 1899 assignments, the 1889 and 1894 equipment lists, the abandonments, and the company’s ownership of at least 162 enslaved people
Interstate Commerce Commission valuation of the Central of Georgia, for the June 1, 1881 lease, the Central’s half at $300,000 a year, and the 307 miles then leased. The Atlanta & West Point valuation, Volume 29, for the 3,118 shares and the 9,361 shares held by the Georgia Rail Road & Banking Company
C. J. Marsh Jr., “Georgia Railroad: A good and unique ‘Family’ member,” Classic Trains, September 1, 2023. Thomson’s location, the traffic, trains 209–211, the passenger trains, the sale on November 4, 1982, and the mixed trains of April 29 and May 6, 1983
C. J. Marsh Jr., “Georgia Railroad locomotives remembered,” Classic Trains, September 17, 2023. Ten-Wheeler 253, Ten-Wheeler 222 on April 8, 1954, Mikado 321, the 1914 types, the USRA engines, F3A 1001 on the Macon Road, and the paint
Lyle Key, “The Last Years of the Georgia Railroad Mixed Trains,” Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Southeast Chapter, Southeast Limited, Newsletter No. 34, April 1996. Night trains off in March 1968, the Super Mixeds from July 1, 1969, trains 1 and 2 off on March 29, 1972, the branch mixeds on April 29, 1983, and Seaboard System 6051, Franklin M. Garrett, Hulsey Yard to Harrisonville Yard on May 6, 1983
Richard E. Prince, Steam Locomotives and History: Georgia Railroad and West Point Route (1962). Steam roster
Robert H. Hanson, Safety-Courtesy-Service: History of the Georgia Railroad (Overmountain Press, 1996)
W. Forrest Beckum Jr. and Albert M. Langley Jr., Georgia Railroad Album (Union Station Publishing, 1985)
Georgia Railroad diesel roster, thedieselshop.us, John Komanesky, from Extra 2200 South, revised February 28, 2016. The diesel list. The Southeastern Railway Museum roster on the same site places GP7 1026 at Duluth

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