Eastern Railroad Discussion > Folkston upgrade's

The area in front of the platform has been concreted witch is nice you don't have to worry about getting bitten by fire ants and the chainlink that separated you from the tracks has now been replaced by a nice fence 

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Thank's for the pictures and update, that's a big improvement. It look's like the fence
continues north to the grade crossing, This will keep people off the grass.

is there still places to stay across the tracks? Does any one know the name and the quality of the accommodations?

You can stay in the cabins they moved the caboose across the street 

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Nice to see the city of Folkston invest some money to compete better with Cordele. Restaurant scene in Folkston has improved with the addition of Black River BBQ. IMHO the Okefenokee has fallen off somewhat.  

For the area in front of the platform, the downside is that the concrete will get hot in summer. At least they knew not to use asphalt. 

Only my 2cents worth, but I'll take Cordele over Folkston any time. More hotels, places to eat, cleanliness, and not sure, but more trains I believe.

Number of trains might be in Cordele's favor at this point in time. Hasn't always been the case. Folkston does have advantages... passenger trains, speed (nothing moves through Cordele faster than 30 mph), a 24-hour restroom (such as it is), great sight lines, and more restaurants within 1000 feet. Cordele has three RRs, paved parking, a much nicer restroom (when it's open), more restaurants if you're willing to drive a ways, much better hotels, and easier access to an Interstate highway. Personally, I split my time between them.  

Folks in Georgia are lucky to have these two excellent locations, plus Waycross inside a 100 mile or so distance.

 

They also installed new LED spotlights to replace the old orange ones. Haven’t seen them at night yet, but it has to be better than the old ones. One of the old ones had been inoperative for years. Nice job done by Folkston!

It would be interesting to know how railfan platforms / cameras etc have affected the local economy in places like Folkston, Rochelle, Cordele, Plant City, etc. Adding a few hundred visitors each week to a small town may put some dollars in local merchant pockets

Cordele is 10,000 people and gets a tremendous amount of business from I-75 (700+ hotel rooms). Except for the RailHouse Tavern near the viewing platform, it might be hard to determine the incremental boost of railfans to the Cordele economy. Folkston is 4,000 people and the traffic on US 1-23-301 is a small fraction of I-75. About all Folkston has going for it is the prison, the Okefenokee, and CSX. My hunch is that railfans are a lot more important to Folkston than to Cordele, but the Cordele platform does attract people to downtown which otherwise would be struggling.  

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Cordele is 10,000 people and gets a tremendous
> amount of business from I-75 (700+ hotel rooms).
> Except for the RailHouse Tavern near the viewing
> platform, it might be hard to determine the
> incremental boost of railfans to the Cordele
> economy. Folkston is 4,000 people and the traffic
> on US 1-23-301 is a small fraction of I-75. About
> all Folkston has going for it is the prison, the
> Okefenokee, and CSX. My hunch is that railfans are
> a lot more important to Folkston than to Cordele,
> but the Cordele platform does attract people to
> downtown which otherwise would be struggling.  

Thanks.  I often take a break from I-95 when going north and spend an hour or two at Folkston.  There are often a few (<10) people there, or in their cars, etc.

The Folkston Spring RailWatch will be Saturday, April 11

https://charltoncountyga.us/m/newsflash/home/detail/379

I visited Folkston in 2012 and stayed there for two days in a cabin near the tracks. It was very nice. That´s a place I would like to return one day.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1