Where or who can fill me in on an old abandoned line out of Brunswick, GA headed toward Thalman,Ga. It Crosses present US 341 and continues out across the Buffalo swamp and river. The old bed is still there and I have been told it was a Southern. I map would be interesting to see

-- Tom Smith (tomsmith@darientel.net), January 04, 2001

Answers

The railroad line from Brunswick to Thalman, Ga., was an Atlantic Coast Line route, originally Atlantic Birmingham & Coast RR which went northeast through Fitzgerald, Cordele and Manchester to Atlanta, with a branch over into Alabama to Birmingham. The portion of the line from Brunswick to Alma, Ga., was abandoned sometime between 1949 and 1953. If you have a highway map you can look up the stations: Brunswick, Brobston, Thalmann, Browntown, Fendig, Hortense, Zirkle, Offerman, Bristol, Mershon, Coffee, Rockingham, Alma, Sessoms, Nichols, etc. A book on the history of the AB&C RR has just been printed and is available from the ACL/SAL Historical Society from their web site: http://www.aclsal.org/

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), January 05, 2001.

Thalmann is interesting because its station was located at an intersection of two lines (the ACL branch and the SAL main). Both lines are now abandoned. I don't know whether the station survives today. It did serve Amtrak when some of the NY-Florida trains ran over the ex-SAL between Jax and Savannah prior to abandonment.

-- Chuck Till (ctill@nc.rr.com), January 05, 2001.