Safety, Courtesy, Service

Safety, Courtesy, Service
Author: Robert H. Hanson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 206
Release: 1996
Genre:
ISBN: 9781570720000

Safety -- Courtesy -- Service. This work is the definitive history of the first railroad to operate in the state of Georgia. Originating in Augusta, the line's terminus was set at a junction with the State Road, later known as the Western & Atlantic Railroad, where the infant town of Marthasville (later named Atlanta) was building. The Railroad played a major role in the development of the state of Georgia and a substantial role in the affairs of Southern railroading in the mid- to late nineteenth century. The history includes full rosters for engines and passenger equipment; station lists for the main and branch lines, complete with the attributes of each stop; and brief histories of the subsidiary companies. Anecdotal stories of the road add wonderful color to the text. Possibly best of all are the photographs -- over 360 of them. This unprecedented book about an extraordinary railroad will prove delightful for Georgia historians and railfans and invaluable for any railroad modeler.

A History of Georgia Railroads

A History of Georgia Railroads
Author: Robert C. Jones
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2017-03-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439660123

Railroads are central in the history of Georgia. Explore 200 years of railroad expansion and consolidation in this must-read for railroad and Georgia history fans. Before the start of the Civil War, Georgia had ten railroads, five of which figured significantly in General William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea. The number of rail lines in the state ballooned after the war. Many were founded by individual entrepreneurs like Henry Plant and Thomas Clyde, while the biggest railroad of them all (Southern Railway) was created out of whole cloth by New York financier J.P. Morgan. At the close of the nineteenth century, consolidation was already in process, and by the end of the next century, only three significant railroads remained in Georgia. Author and historian Robert C. Jones examines Georgia's rail history over the past two centuries and today.

Central of Georgia Railway

Central of Georgia Railway
Author: Jackson McQuigg
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2004-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738516165

Organized in 1833 by Savannah businessmen, the Central of Georgia Railway was chartered by the Georgia Legislature as the Central Rail Road & Canal Company. The line, connecting Savannah to the interior of the state, boosted the coastal city's seaport, which had lost business to Charleston because of the South Carolina Rail Road's inland reach. In 1843, the Central was extended from Savannah to the outskirts of Macon, and after nearly 120 years of successful operation, the Central of Georgia Railway was purchased by Southern Railway. By 1982, it became merely an accounting entry in the books of Norfolk Southern, a major transportation company.

Rails Through the Wiregrass

Rails Through the Wiregrass
Author: H. Roger Grant
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The Georgia & Florida Railroad began with bright promise, but like many other enterprises in the early twentieth-century South, it experienced hard times. The story begins in 1906, when--responding to a perceived need for better connections to northern markets--a group of entrepreneurs led by prominent Virginia banker John Skelton Williams began to cobble together logging short lines to create more than 350 miles of railroad connecting Augusta, Georgia, with Madison, Florida. At first the G&F triggered growth in its region as several new towns sprang up or expanded along its lines. By 1915, however, the economic dislocations caused by World War I threw the G&F into receivership, and a few years later the G&F came close to dismemberment. Fortunately, shippers and investors rallied to the railroad's cause, and business conditions improved. In 1926 the road was reorganized and, under pressure to "expand or die," built to Greenwood, South Carolina. The Great Depression forced the G&F into bankruptcy, and after its record-length receivership, it was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1963. When the Southern Railway dissolved the corporation and abandoned much of the former trackage, the G&F became the "Gone & Forgotten." Yet in its 57-year lifespan the G&F did much to bring about agricultural diversification and relative prosperity in the wiregrass region of southern Georgia and northern Florida. Offering insights on social and economic conditions in the South from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, Grant's study of this obscure yet noteworthy railroad will appeal to those interested in transportation, business, railroad, and Southern regional history.

North Georgia's Two Shortline Railroads

North Georgia's Two Shortline Railroads
Author: Wilds L. Pierce, 3rd
Publisher:
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2021-01-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578835938

In 1996, Wilds Lovick Pierce II, owner of the Georgia Northeastern Railroad, and local supporters had a vision for a return of passenger rail travel in North Georgia. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway became a reality and carried its first passengers in 1998. Since then, over a millions passengers have experienced the joys of train travel through the mountains. The story of the scenic railway's inceptions and early days with volunteer staff provides an enjoyable read.

A Journey into Florida Railroad History

A Journey into Florida Railroad History
Author: Gregg M. Turner
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2012-03-25
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0813042925

It is safe to say that without railroads, Florida wouldn't be what it is today. Railroads connected the state's important cities and towns, conquered the peninsula's vast and seemingly impenetrable interior, ushered in untold numbers of settlers and tourists, and conveyed to market--faster than any previous means of transportation--the myriad products of Florida's mines, forests, factories, farms, and groves. Gregg Turner traces the long, slow development of Florida railroads, from the first tentative lines in the 1830s, through the boom of the 1880s, to the maturity of the railroad system in the 1920s. At the end of that decade nearly 6,000 miles of labyrinthine track covered the state. Turner also examines the decline of the industry, as the automobile rose to prominence in American culture and lines were abandoned or sold for hiking trails and green spaces. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated--including many never-before-published images--A Journey into Florida Railroad History is a comprehensive, authoritative history of the subject. Written by one of the nation's foremost authorities on Florida railroads, it explores all the key players and companies, and every significant period of development. This engaging and lively story will be savored and enjoyed by generations to come.

Western & Atlantic Railroad

Western & Atlantic Railroad
Author: Todd DeFeo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 146710339X

The State of Georgia chartered the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1836. The railroad aided in the development and growth of many communities between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee. In constructing the railroad, workers created a winding route that cut its way across the North Georgia landscape. During the Civil War, both armies used this vital artery, and it was the setting for one of the war's most iconic events, the Great Locomotive Chase. The state still owns the Western & Atlantic and has leased it since 1870. The line remains an essential part of North Georgia and is a backbone of the region's industry. As Atlanta ponders its transportation future, it is important to remember that without the Western & Atlantic, Atlanta would not be the city it is today.

Iron Confederacies

Iron Confederacies
Author: Scott Reynolds Nelson
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2005-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807876100

During Reconstruction, an alliance of southern planters and northern capitalists rebuilt the southern railway system using remnants of the Confederate railroads that had been built and destroyed during the Civil War. In the process of linking Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia by rail, this alliance created one of the largest corporations in the world, engendered bitter political struggles, and transformed the South in lasting ways, says Scott Nelson. Iron Confederacies uses the history of southern railways to explore linkages among the themes of states' rights, racial violence, labor strife, and big business in the nineteenth-century South. By 1868, Ku Klux Klan leaders had begun mobilizing white resentment against rapid economic change by asserting that railroad consolidation led to political corruption and black economic success. As Nelson notes, some of the Klan's most violent activity was concentrated along the Richmond-Atlanta rail corridor. But conflicts over railroads were eventually resolved, he argues, in agreements between northern railroad barons and Klan leaders that allowed white terrorism against black voters while surrendering states' control over the southern economy.

Railroads and the Transformation of China

Railroads and the Transformation of China
Author: Elisabeth Köll
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2019-01-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674368177

As a vehicle to convey both the history of modern China and the complex forces still driving the nation’s economic success, rail has no equal. Railroads and the Transformation of China is the first comprehensive history, in any language, of railroad operation from the last decades of the Qing Empire to the present. China’s first fractured lines were built under semicolonial conditions by competing foreign investors. The national system that began taking shape in the 1910s suffered all the ills of the country at large: warlordism and Japanese invasion, Chinese partisan sabotage, the Great Leap Forward when lines suffered in the “battle for steel,” and the Cultural Revolution, during which Red Guards were granted free passage to “make revolution” across the country, nearly collapsing the system. Elisabeth Köll’s expansive study shows how railroads survived the rupture of the 1949 Communist revolution and became an enduring model of Chinese infrastructure expansion. The railroads persisted because they were exemplary bureaucratic institutions. Through detailed archival research and interviews, Köll builds case studies illuminating the strength of rail administration. Pragmatic management, combining central authority and local autonomy, sustained rail organizations amid shifting political and economic priorities. As Köll shows, rail provided a blueprint for the past forty years of ambitious, semipublic business development and remains an essential component of the PRC’s politically charged, technocratic economic model for China’s future.