Eastern Railroad Discussion > An Old Line Gets New Life

On rails originally laid during the late 1800's by the Chattanooga Rome & Columbus Railroad (CR&C) only to change owners multiple times as was a common occurrence in American Railroading back then the Norfolk Southern Georgia Division “C-Line” is showing signs of new life. In 1963 the Southern RR purchased the then Central Railway and in 1971 a name change for the north/south line to the Central Of Georgia was made. 

Back in my early days of rail fanning in north Georgia the C-Line was operated by the Alabama Division of NS. And coal drags, often two a day was the main traffic on the line that serviced two Georgia Power coal fired power plants. The best times were the period after the Conrail split as many coal drags would soon have Conrail leaders heading to Plants Yates & Wansley. Today the line only services one power plant, Plant Wansley located in Heard County, SW of Carrollton Georgia. The 90 mile line starts at MP C-361 off the North Atlanta District at CP Green and ends at Senoia Georgia MP C-270. The Cedartown Depot at MP C-353 serves as a crew change point and the lines locals operate out of the Carrollton Depot at the MP C-311. The C-Line operates as TWC and rule 171 applies and is part of the NS Georgia Division. 

Fast Forward to 2019  The positive effects of a robust economy along with Clean Sheeting as part of the new 2019 NS Operating Plan manifest freight traffic has returned to the northern limits of the C-Line from CP Green, to Cedartown and south to Bremen. Carrollton customer freight traffic was always common with locals working the southern end of the line with freight south off the Alabama East End storage tracks in Bremen. Now a large portion of the manifest traffic for Buchanan, Carrollton, Newnan and Senoia Georgia is routed via Chattanooga on NS 371 to Cedartown. From there a crew change and now with the symbol G01 the manifest freight heads south.  

The following photos cover some of the recent activity on the “C-Line”
#1. But first a look back at NS 712 in Whitesburg GA with Conrail #6739 leading a coal drag on the way to Georgia Power Plant Yates in June 2003. 
#2. NS G01 (CEDARTOWN, GA – CARROLLTON, GA TURN) with NS #1069 leading at Buchanan Georgia 
#3. NS #911 leads G01 south bound at Buchanan Georgia. 

… more to follow....

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/19 04:18 by NSSpike.

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#4. NS #9502 leads G02 south bound at the South Bremen signal. 
#5. With the highest HP rated unit in the NS stable at 5000HP SD80 MAC # 7223 leads G02 south bound on the C-Line Buchanan Georgia. 
#6. NS #7223 shoves into the Blossman Gas lead to pick up a cut of 9 empties liquefied propane tankers. 
….more to follow...

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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#7. After completing their work in Buchanan Georgia G01 continues south on the C-line At Bremen Georgia. 
#8. Just south of Bremen G01 places the empty tank cars from Blossman Gas in the passing track south of Bremen. They will pick these up when they head back north to Cedartown where the train will become NS 370 (CEDARTOWN, GA -CHATTANOOGA, TN) 
#9. G01 rounds the curve at MP C-315 just north of Carrollton Georgia. 
,,,,.one more to follow....

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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#10. NS 370 ( CEDARTOWN, GA - CHATTANOOGA, TN ) heads north on the C-Line into CP Green by the Ostrich Farm.

#11. The Ostrich Farm at CP Green 

Thanks for stopping by!!!
NSSpike

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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A great post. You always have something interesting to share, with information and pictures. I like the elevated photo of the Conrail locomotive. Is this shot still possible ?
John

jmbreitigan Wrote:
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> A great post. You always have something
> interesting to share, with information and
> pictures. I like the elevated photo of the Conrail
> locomotive. Is this shot still possible ?
> John

Thanks John... Yes the photo location in #1 above is still possible but no longer for coal drags. Only locals south bound out of Carrollton Ga.
Coal drags only go to Plant Wansley now and they take the WA line to the plant about 4 miles north of here at Wansley Junction.

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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Nice pics!!

Love the ostrich farm, the on and off UP yard at Picacho in AZ had one almost across the interstate. Nice variety on those
shots, guess big power is going to be the norm on locals in the future.

Out

Obviously this power plant won't be getting coal forever either. Are they saying how much longer until this plant converts over to natural gas?

cockaboose Wrote:
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> Obviously this power plant won't be getting coal
> forever either. Are they saying how much longer
> until this plant converts over to natural gas?

Actually two of the four generating units at Plant Wansley are fueled by Natural Gas that went on line in 2002. 
The other two are coal fired units. So the when will they convert the two coal fired units to NG? Don't know the answer to that.

The coal drag shown in photo #1 of this post was headed to Georgia Power Plant Yates. It was a rotary dump plant built in the 1050's.
Units 1-5 were retired in 2015 with units 6&7 being fueled by NG. There is an 8 track yard adjacent to the main line that is currently
is used for storage of empty hoppers and manifest freight cars.

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA