Arlington Depot Renovation Project A project of the Downtown Development Authority of the City of Arlington 1925 depot that replaced 1873 depot that was destroyed by fire A brief history of railroads in Arlington from 1873 to present Arlington was created for the railroad and prospered with the railroads as The Hub of Southwest Georgia Powered by the volunteers of the Sponsored by the City of Arlington City of Arlington P.O. Box 126 Arlington, GA 39813 1(229)725-4276 Fax 1(229)725-3466
EAST-WEST LINE (1873 to present): The Pepper s, pre-revolution plantation owners from South Carolina, became large land owners in Southwest Georgia after the region was acquired from the Creek nations in the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814. Franklin Lawrence Pepper inherited a large estate in Early and Randolph Counties after his fathers death in 1847. In 1858, Franklin Pepper sold all his property in Ft. Gaines for $35,800 and began buying land and built a new home around the area that was to become Arlington. He joined the CSA army as a private but soon was promoted to Captain, a rank he held until leaving the service in 1865. After retiring from the State legislature in 1870; Colonel Pepper, a title he picked up as a State Legislature, was appointed to the newly formed board of the Albany-Mobile-New Orleans Railroad Company, later to become part of the Southwestern Railroad Company then the Central of Georgia system. Colonel Pepper s son, James Daniel Pepper is considered the founder of the City of Arlington. Soon after Colonel Pepper s appointment to the railroad board, James Pepper hired Major Audley J Maxwell, Southwestern Railroad surveyor from Dougherty County to survey land lots and streets for a town in anticipation of the coming of a rail line from Albany, GA. Major Maxwell was paid 50% of every lot sold. It was also decided that the newly formed town was to be called Arlington after General Robert E Lee s estate in Virginia. On June 24, 1869, the Southwestern Railroad Company was leased to the Central of Georgia. Under the Central lease the railroad continued to construct branch lines, adding Albany to Arlington in 1873, Fort Valley to Perry in 1875, Arlington to Blakely in 1881, and Blakely to Columbia in 1889. On March 11,1954, the Central acquired a majority of the Southwestern s stock and made the railroad an integral part of its own system. The Southwestern Railroad was chartered in 1845 to build a railroad from Macon through southwestern Georgia to the lower Chattahoochee River. The Central Rail Road and Canal Company was organized in 1833 by a group of Savannah businessmen. The company decided to go into the banking business to attract capital investment in the railroad. To better reflect its new interests it changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. Southern Railway acquired the Central of Georgia Railway and the Georgia and Florida on June 17, 1963. The Central's name was changed in 1971 to Central of Georgia Railroad when Southern Railway decided to merge it, the Georgia and Florida, the Wrightsville and Tennille, and the Savannah and Atlanta into a single subsidiary. This arrangement survived the June 1, 1982 merger of Southern and Norfolk and Western, and the Central continues to be an operating unit of the Norfolk Southern Corporation (although few, if any, locomotives or rail cars have any Central markings).
NORTH-SOUTH LINE (1897 to present): In 1895, a Savannah lumberman by the name of John P. Williams, was needing a railroad to be built through his pine lands south of Bainbridge, Ga. He quickly incorporated the Georgia Pine Railway on September 13, 1895. The railroad slowly built from Bainbridge, reaching 40 miles to Arlington, Ga in 1897. The last spike in the Arlington connection was laid on October 7, 1898 with a town celebration on October 11th. Needing to reach Tallahassee and its Jacksonville connection he proceeded to build 41 miles further south, reaching the Florida capital city in 1902. At the same time he built north 25 miles to Cuthbert, Ga. Being a north and south railroad in a section of Georgia that was all east and west roads, bridge traffic began forming at all its connections as passenger short cuts to Alabama, Southwest Georgia and points in Florida. In 1901 the name was changed to Georgia, Florida & Alabama Railway to reflect the lines regional influence. GF&A by this time ran from Richland, Georgia to Carrabelle, Florida on the Gulf coast, some 192 miles, forming an important bridge route between Richland and Tallahassee. Richland was on Seaboards Montgomery to Savannah route and Tallahassee was on the Chattahoochee to Jacksonville route. Other important junctions were with the Atlantic Coast Line at Bainbridge and the Central of Georgia at Arlington and Cuthbert. Its shops were at Bainbridge. Like many railroads the GF&A had a nickname, the Sumatra Leaf Route, for a variety of tobacco grown in the area. Its unofficial name for Georgia, Florida & Alabama (GF&A) was the Gophers, Frogs & Alligators. Between 1901 and 1908 the G.F & A. went through a series of ownership/control interests returning to the Williams family. The railroad was up for sale in 1927, due to the death of Mrs. Williams, window of John Williams, in order to fulfill a trust fund set up for a hospital. Seaboard first received approval from the ICC to refinance and reorganize the GF&A and to lease it to for 99 years. The bonds and a special non-voting stock issue as well as the lease payments were promised to the Hospital Charity Trust Fund, which also received the semi-annual interest payments and stock dividends. The Seaboard received the actual voting stock and gained control of the railroad, merging it into the Seaboard in 1928. The company was reorganized as Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1946. The Seaboard Coast Line SCL was created on July 1, 1967 by the merger of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1972, Seaboard Coast Line became part of the Family Lines System, a marketing name used jointly by SCL and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, along with their other subsidiaries.
In 1982 Seaboard Coast Line and Louisville and Nashville Railroad merged to form the Seaboard System Railroad. The Seaboard System name lasted only four years. In mid-1986, Seaboard became CSX Transportation. The name CSX is said to represent the merger by combining the first letters of Chessie and Seaboard along with an X to signify multiplying the combined strength of the two railroads. Today the Georgia Southwestern Railroad GSWR operates the portion of this railroad through Arlington between Cuthbert, GA and Bainbridge, GA (line control actually ends at MP 91.5 just south of Lynn, GA track rights over CSXT provide access to Bainbridge for interchange with CSXT). The Georgia Southwestern Railroad actually began as a division of the South Carolina Central Railroad (a subsidiary of RailTex, Inc.) in November 1988 operating between Rhine, GA and Mahrt, AL, and Columbus, GA and Bainbridge, GA (the lines made junction at Richland, GA, both line segments were acquired from CSXT. In September 1996, the Georgia Southwestern Railroad Co. was incorporated to consolidate the operations of the 3 divisions of the South Carolina Central (GSW, GAAB, and GGS) under one operating entity. This was the official beginning of today s Georgia Southwestern Railroad. In early 2002, Rail America sold the GSWR to local ownership in conjunction with its line sales of Lynn (Bainbridge), GA to Cuthbert, GA, Dawson, GA to Sasser, GA; and Cusseta, GA and Columbus, GA to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
1900 - The Georgia Pine Railway (#43 on the map) 2007 - Georgia Southwestern Railroad Inc
From Travelers' Official Railway Guide for the United States and Canada, September, 1882
Arlington Depot Above, depot after phase I renovation from funds received trough GDOT Transportation Enhancement program Built in 1925, Arlington's depot served the Central of Georgia and the Georgia, Florida and Alabama railway (later Seaboard Air Line Railway). The original depot, built in 1873, sat across the tracks from this structure between main and side tracks leading to the GF&A north/side line. Arlington received its first passengers from Dothan, Alabama on May 1 st, 1900. In June of 1920, the Arlington City Council had written both the CofA & GF&A as a start to a campaign to have a more proper depot built for a community that had become a hub for freight and passenger traffic in all directions. Just after midnight the morning of February 6, 1925 the original 1873 frame depot was destroyed by fire. Above, the depot before rehab work was begun in 2001
Georgia Pine Railway # 3 at Colquitt, Georgia - From a negative in the Donald R. Hensley Collection. GF&A # 403 with a typical long train of the late 20's. (Hensley Collection)
From 1949 Central of Georgia timetable. The Central's finger-like system of branches inspired this clever graphic in its mid-century marketing materials.