The Chattahoochee and Gulf Railroad was a

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

operating from 2003 to 2006 between

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

and

Dothan, Alabama Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, ...

, on former

Central of Georgia The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

and

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

tracks. Initially the railroad was a subsidiary of

Gulf and Ohio Railways Gulf & Ohio Railways is a holding company for four different short-line railroads in the Southern United States, as well as a tourist-oriented passenger train, and locomotive leasing and repair service through Knoxville Locomotive Works. Gulf & ...

. In 2006, the railroad was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and combined with the adjacent H and S Railroad out of Dothan to form the Chattahoochee Bay Railroad. Commodities include chemicals, forest products, food products, and feed, which generate approximately 5,500 annual carloads.

History

In 1900 the Chattahoochee and Gulf Railroad completed the construction of a line from Columbia to

Lockhart, Alabama Lockhart is a town in Covington County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 445. Geography Lockhart is located in southern Covington County at (31.011435, -86.350652), north of the Florida state line. Lockhart is bor ...

. The railroad was leased and operated by the

Central of Georgia Railway The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

(CofG) until the line was abandoned from Lockhart to Hartford in 1940. The CofG became a subsidiary of the Southern Railway, which merged into the Norfolk Southern in 1982. On March 7, 2003 Norfolk Southern sold the line between Hilton and Dothan to the Chattahoochee and Gulf railroad, a Gulf & Ohio subsidiary. The railroad connected to another G&O subsidiary, the H and S Railroad, at Dothan. Another railroad group, Genesee and Wyoming Inc., expanded into the region in 2003 and 2005 with acquisition of the Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad and

Bay Line Railroad The Bay Line Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates between Panama City, Florida, and Dothan, Alabama, including a branch from Grimes to Abbeville, Alabama, reached via trackage rights ...

, respectively. As the Chattahoochee & Gulf connected with both subsidiaries, G&W sought to fill the gap and purchased the C&G as well as the H&S in 2006. Both railroads were then merged into a single operation, named the Chattahoochee Bay Railroad. This gave Genesee & Wyoming a contiguous route from the paper mill at Cedar Springs, Georgia to the port of

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

, allowing for more efficient operation under the unified carrier. The Chattahoochee Bay railroad totals and interchanges with

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and the Bay Line Railroad at Dothan, as well as Norfolk Southern and the Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad at Hilton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chattahoochee Gulf Railroad Georgia (U.S. state) railroads Alabama railroads Gulf and Ohio Railways