MD&S - CG interchange traffic in Macon

greenspun.com : LUSENET : ACL and SAL Railroads Historical Society : One Thread

Lately I have heard that the MD&S and CG interchanged quite heavily in Macon. Does anyone have any thoughts on where the MD&S traffic to the CG originated or where the CG traffic was going?

My guesses would be (1) online industries - there is still significant kaolin coming off the old MD&S (Georgia Central) today, (2) cars handed off to the Seaboard proper, then westbound to Montgomery, but it would seem there would better interchange points to accomplish this in SW Ga, (3) cars to and from Savannah. My vote would be a mix of 1 and 3.

Thanks for any comments.

-- Ron Wright (rcwright@bellsouth.net), February 25, 1998

Answers

Started working for this outfit in the Miami freight traffic office and before the Souther gained control of the CofG and S&A, amon SAL's preferred routes was via SAL-Columbus, GA. or Macon, GA. From Columbus the CofG would take cars to the Birmingham gateway for interchange to connections there, generally to the west of the Miss. River or the western part of the south on up to Chicago, etc. As far as Macon was concerned most of that traffic was routed to the area up toward Cincinnati and north or over near Nashville and Louisville. Hope you are still interested as this is an old question.

-- Dave Rogers (daveandgailrogers@prodigy.net), February 12, 2000.

Interesting question. Let me prefix my answer with the caveat, "I don't actually know, but..."

The answer is probably that the traffic was from local industries local to each carrier - the kaolin pits would be one on the MD&S - as well as overhead traffic - for the MD&S anyway - moving from the Central to Seaboard points, either in FL or up the coast.

Also please remember that prior to deregulation in 1980, it was much, much harder to close an interchange point, making it much easier for shippers to route traffic pretty much as they pleased, as long as the route was in the tariff. (And most of them were.) This resulted in some unbelievable - by today's standards, anyway - routings. A routing of CofG-MCN-MD&S-Vidalia-SAL-Jax-FEC on FL traffic would not be unheard of. Today it would likely move either CSXT direct or NS-Jax-FEC

Hope this helps.

Bob Hanson

-- Robert H. Hanson (RHanson669@aol.com), February 27, 1998.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ