The Old Augusta Railroad is a

shortline 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 ...

that runs from the

Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and r ...

Leaf River Cellulose

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ful ...

near the Old Augusta Historic Site in

New Augusta, Mississippi New Augusta is a town in Perry County, Mississippi. It is part of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 644 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Perry County. New Augusta is located about two miles ...

to an interchange with the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

(CN) between Mahned, Mississippi and New Augusta. It primarily hauls pulp products,

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

, and

paper products Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

History

The Old Augusta Railroad was constructed between August 1982 and early 1983. The

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

approved common carrier status for the railroad on February 23, 1983. The railroad was built by Leaf River Forest Products, Inc., which was owned by its parent company, Georgia-Pacific. When the railroad was initially built it interchanged with the

Illinois Central Gulf Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A ...

prior to it being purchased by CN. The OAR connects to the CN

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

Subdivision, which runs between

Mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...

and

Hattiesburg Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County. The city population was 45,989 at the 2010 census, with the populat ...

. In 2004, Georgia-Pacific sold the OAR to Koch Cellulose, LLC, which is owned by

Koch Industries Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in th ...

(the parent company of Georgia-Pacific). As part of the sale, OAR's name was changed to Old Pine Belt Railroad Company, which was a corporate shell that ceased operations on May 7, 2004. OAR, LLC was simultaneously created on May 7, 2004.

Operations

In 1996, the OAR had a load of 10,000 cars per year with 195

boxcar A boxcar is the North American ( AAR) term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most ...

Motive power

In 1987, OAR used an EMD GP9. In 1996, OAR used two locomotives to power its trains: *1 EMD NW2 (OAR 100) *1 EMD MP15 (OAR 200)

References

External links

Picture of OAR EMD GP9

Picture of OAR EMD MP15

{{Mississippi railroads Mississippi railroads Switching and terminal railroads Railway companies established in 1983 American companies established in 1983 1983 establishments in Mississippi Georgia-Pacific