I'm aware that several years before discontinueing passenger service on the Dothan branch, the CofG began running the train (coaches and sleepers) through to Panama City FL via the Bayline. My question is did this service ever have a name or was a name loosely associated with it, perhaps unofficially and informally??? Before it was discontinued it appears to have been one of the last, or perhaps the last, passenger train that the CofG operated that did not have a name. What I am referring to is a name such as The City of Miami, Nancy Hanks, Man O'War, etc. Also, what station in Dothan did this train use?? If the CofG station was used it would have meant pulling down to the station then backing up about 1/2 mile to get to the Bayline interchange. Or was the Bayline station used which would have meant a continuos forward movement with no backing up???

Thanks for any info..............Bryan

-- Bryan Smith (bsmith3608@aol.com), October 17, 1999

Answers

Mr. Cogdell's recent answer prompted me to follow up a bit on my own question of some time ago.

I have never heard of a name attached to CofG passenger service on the Dothan line myself or turned up any evidence of a name from any source. The April 1954 public timetable does show that through cars for the train to/from Panama City/Dothan were handled north of Albany in The Southland. There was no longer a separate train operating through Albany dedicated entirely to the Dothan service. The arrangement with the Southland resulted in layovers of about 3 hours for Dothan service passengers in Albany although it was in the wee hours so if you were asleep, it probably wasn't noticed.

As to which station was used in Dothan, it appears the Bayline station was used for through trains to/from Panama City. All the public timetables I have show arrival and departure times at Dothan with a notation showing it applied at the Bayline depot. Mixed train service between Dothan and Hartford, discontinued in 1952, was handled from the CofG depot.

Bryan Smith

-- Bryan Smith (bsmith3608@aol.com), October 13, 2002.

As far as I know, this train had no name, not even a nickname. I don't remember exactly when this train was discontinued, but it was long before we went out of the passenger train business, so we probably had several number only trains operating years after this train was discontinued.

I was not in the area enough to know for sure which station was used.

-- Don Cogdell (wdcogdell@comcast.com), October 13, 2002.