ABOVE: Streamlined coaches bumped from through-train service found their retirement home on the “Super Mixed” operation between Augusta and Atlanta, seen here in March 1976. OPPOSITE: The golden dome of the state capitol provides the backdrop for the first run of the “Super Mixed” on July 1, 1969. Atlanta & West Point No. 120 was one of two streamlined coaches that would be assigned to the new combined train service, retiring the old heavyweight equipment permanently. Early efforts were made to keep the coach connected to a steam-equipped locomotive, but quickly fell to the wayside.
the “Super Mixeds.” The initial plan was to limit the train to a maximum of 50 loaded freight cars. All freight would be through cars with no switching en route. The heavyweight coaches which had been regularly seen on Georgia 1 and 2 were replaced by two streamlined cars from the Crescent, Western Railway of Alabama No. 106 and Atlanta & West Point coach No. 120 (both now relettered GEORGIA). Additionally WRA 10-6 streamlined sleeper Alabama River and A&WP Chattahoochee River began to show up as substitutes when the coaches needed servicing. Every intermediate station between Hunter Street and Harrisonville became a flag stop. Trains 1 and 2 continued under
this incarnation when Amtrak was established on May 1, 1971. However, within a year (March 29, 1972) the Georgia Railroad had made another service change. Trains 1 and 2 were abolished and the mixed trains became 103 (westbound) and 104 (eastbound, later changed to 108 in late 1974). There was no longer a limit of 50 loads on the trains. Even worse, local switching was now permitted so the speeded-up schedule effectively vanished. What few real passengers may have actually traveled by train now also vanished. The Mixeds were no longer “Super.” Shortly thereafter on the Athens and Washington Branches, the elderly and less-than-inviting coaches were replaced with cabooses. A coach/caboose was still used on the Macon Branch until 1979. It would be safe to say that the only persons
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riding the Georgia Railroad mixed by this time were either the curious or railfans. The Hunter Street building was razed
in 1975 in preparation for the construction of the James Floyd office building and the new Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit (MARTA) station. Trains 103 and 108 began using the Hulsey freight yards a little bit east of downtown Atlanta. A tiny asphalt spot marked the passenger loading site. Trains 103 and 108 now ran between Hulsey Yard and Harrisonville Yard with very little pretense to being a real passenger service. While the schedule was posted, my own personal observation was that it was the merest suggestion to the crews. Georgia Road employees were generally tolerant of passengers, but they did have their rules. For example, if you rode down from Athens to Union Point, the Mixed would continue east over the main to Barnett where it would divert north to serve the Washington Branch. According to company policy, passage over the main on the mixed was strictly forbidden. Thus, you would be abandoned in Union Point to sample the excellent lemonade at Kimbrough’s Drug Store and arrange a return via thumb (if this were a Saturday) or else have a friend dragooned into providing transit. The indifference to passenger comforts became more and more pronounced. The coaches on the branchlines were heated by coal stoves and presented a pretty scruffy appearance in the 1960s. With the arrival of the former Crescent coaches on the mainline, things looked
up a bit, but before long the absence of regular car cleaners was obvious. The windows were sometimes so dirty as to take on a tobacco coloration that filtered all but the strongest sunlight. The seats and floors were less than inviting. Introduction of the streamlined cars
forced the retirement of the older stock. After loitering on sidings for some years, the heavyweight cars were rounded up, white-lined, and dispatched to Hulsey Yard for disposal in a “hospital train” in 1983, and scrapped two years later.
The Last Holdout Expires The 1980s was a decade of mergers
and acquisitions. One of the astonishing things was the 1982 purchase of the operating property of the Georgia Railroad for a total of $16.5 million; that was the ICC evaluation of the property in 1916. The Georgia Railroad & Banking
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