Co. divested the namesake property to the Seaboard Coast Line as a part of the formation of the new CSX Corporation. (SCL predecessors Atlantic Coast Line and Louisville & Nashville had leased the Georgia for many years). The day after this sale was consummated, a petition was filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission to discontinue all Georgia Railroad passenger service. About 60 days later, the Seaboard System was formed, bringing the remains of the old Georgia Railroad into the new company. On April 5, 1983, the Georgia Public


Service Commission granted the petition to discontinue all of the Georgia Railroad mixed trains. This had been anticipated for some time and fans were showing up in force. Excursion coaches from the Chessie Steam Special were called on to handle the expected crowds. When the permission was granted, there was an immediate


announcement that the Georgia Road’s mixeds would be discontinued on the branchlines on April 29, 1983, while the last runs on the mainline would take place on May 6, 1983. The pre-Amtrak world of quaint branchline mixed train operation that Jim Boyd visited is now more than 40 years in the rearview. The Washington Branch is now the Georgia Woodlands Railroad, while the Athens Branch was abandoned more than 30 years ago by successor Seaboard System. While CSX continues to operate


the former Georgia mainline between Atlanta and Augusta — even though the line sees mostly local movements — the days of seeing a revenue passenger car tucked in among the freight are gone. The Georgia mixeds were a colorful footnote during an otherwise drab period of American postwar railroading.


57


These photos originally appeared in “Whatever Happened to the Georgia Mixeds?” in the Summer 1976 issue of RAILFAN.


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