I have a few questions regarding the history of the Georgia and Florida RR. I do know that it was pieced together from logging lines by John S. Williams in 1907 after he was ousted as president of the SAL (as vengence?), went into receivership in 1929 and remained there until Southern purchased its rail assets in 1964.Was it conceived as just a link between Augusta and south Georgia/north Florida or did it intend to extend beyond to ,say, Tampa and Charlotte? Why did it build its extension from Augusta to Greenwood, SC so late in 1929?(to connect with SAL?)Did it have any substantial industrial or overhead/bridge traffic or was it essentially a 300+ mile collection of light density agricultural branch lines? Finally, if the last question is true why did Bill Brosnan want to purchase such an operation on behalf of the Southern?

-- Eric Rickert (au_tiger777@hotmail.com), October 06, 2001

Answers

The G&F main, after completing its Augusta to Greenwood segment in 1929, officially ran from Greenwood, SC to Madison, FL. I believe Williams' intentions was to extend the railroad further to compete with his "beloved" SAL, but obviously never materialized.

The railroad served mostly wood yards and agricultural facilities, so there really wasn't any huge industrial sites along the line that generated a lot of traffic. They mostly had locals that shuffled the freight across the railroad.

As a railfan buddy once told me when I asked him why the G&F suffered such a bad fate when the Southern could have turned it into a through route for their hotshot Florida trains......"It went from nowhere to nowhere."

-- Jared Blocker (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), November 14, 2003.

"I believe Williams' intentions was to extend the railroad further to compete with his 'beloved' SAL, but obviously never materialized."

Too bad the purposed merger with the Piedmont and Northern didn't take place (1930s purposal)... sure would have changed some things!!!

-- Jerry M. LaBoda (laboda@bellsouth.net), November 14, 2003.