Eastern Railroad Discussion > Georgia Central's L784 Intermodal Train

Who would have thought that in the year 2015 you could still see a U23B & GP30 pulling an intermodal train. On Genessee & Wyoming,INC's Georgia Central Railroad between Savannah,GA and Vidalia,GA you will find just that but not for long. Sadly, the GE U23B's are short for this world being sent to the scrapper. According to some of the employees I talked with on the GC they are better pullers than the EMD replacements GWI has provided. The Georgia Central is also gaining lots of new business between intermodal traffic from the port of Savannah and other industries along the line such as International Paper making for longer trains. With the growth of traffic added to these longer, heavier trains and GWI scrapping more than half of the GC fleet, how will they be able to handle all this?

On Sunday, 1/18/15, a friend and I set out to photograph Georgia Central intermodal train L784 make its run between Savannah,GA and Vidalia,GA where it would interchange with the Heart of Georgia Railroad. The HOG would then take the same intermodal train to the inland port in Cordele,GA.

We made a pit stop in Macon,GA on the way and caught Y101 building its train in the yard with EMD replacement power. Though I do love first generation EMD's it was sad to see these replacing some of the last GE U23B's around.

Shortly after arriving in Savannah at noon, we caught our train L784 pounding the CSX diamonds with the yard crew aboard. The road crew wasn't called until 1300 so we had some time to kill. We were granted permission to check out the yard and photograph U23B's #1004 & #3911 before they met the torch. Along with them were TNER GP7u #2166, OHCR MT4 #1005 & GC U23B #3956 all said to be 'projects'.

It was around 1330 at this point so we decided to get into position to catch L784 in Meldrim,GA. After a 35 minute wait L784 came through with U23B #3957 (ex SOU) and GP30 #2435 (ex ATSF) pulling 21 loaded well cars and the chase was on from there.

It was an easy chase with the GC speed limit no more than 30mph and the rural south Georgia highways at 55mph. When we made it to Vidalia late in the day we even had enough sunlight to shoot the HOG taking the train west which was a nice bonus treat.

The day panned out perfectly just as planned which is a rarity when it comes to all the variables in this crazy hobby we like. I put 600 miles on my truck at the end of the day but was well worth it. While driving down boring I-16 I got to wonder how big Georgia truly was. With a quick Google search I learned that Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River in land area.



Picture 1 - GC GP10 #1706 and company build their train in Macon,GA.

Picture 2 - Engineer David White gives a wave as Georgia Central train L784 crosses CSX's A Line in Savannah,GA.

Picture 3 - GC U23B's #1004 & #3911 ready to meet the torch.

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Picture 4 - Another view of the GE's awaiting their fate.

Picture 5 - TNER GP7u #2166, OHCR MT4 #1005 & GC #3956

Picture 6 - L784 breaking the silence in the small southern town of Meldrim with a Spanish moss oak tree framing up the train.

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Picture 7 - Southern History meets at Pembroke,GA

Picture 8 - L784 comes down a hogback in Daisy,GA

Picture 9 - Claxton,GA

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Picture 10 - Hagan,GA

Picture 11 - Manassass,GA

Picture 12 - In Collins we found L782 tied down in the shadows with Maryland Midland GP9 #202 on the point.

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Picture 13 - L784 comes through Collins,GA

Picture 14 - Ohoopee,GA

Picture 15 - Passing the restored SAL depot in Lyons,GA.

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Picture 16 - HOG GP40 #1540 leads the train west through Vidalia on its way to Cordele.

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Very nice pictures. I like photo #8 on that hogback.
John

Sure would have liked to have seen those GE's hang around long enough to get some Orange paint. Great set of photo's there.

Not just the intermodal traffic, but welded rail on the Savannah-Montgomery line. Nobody at SAL would ever have imagined that.

Great series, and location shots !!

Thanks for making the effort to get these, nice shots.

i remember back in the 90's seeing u23bs on lots of freights going in and out of birmingham,shot lots of them,and they were on road freights,not locals back then.

Nice series of photos. How often does the stack train run? (daily?, once a week?)

Really nice series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

GREAT stuff...!! Thanks for posting.

RockIsland4310 Wrote:
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> Nice series of photos. How often does the stack
> train run? (daily?, once a week?)

I think it runs Sunday only.

Andrew

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for the comments. The intermodal train only runs on Sundays but like anything with the railroad is subject to change.

Great stuff! I especially like #14, sun catching the stacks.

super series buddy, me and a few buddies are possibly planning a southern shortline trip for this spring. Ill keep ya posted if we nail something down solid.
Mark Mautner