I understand the entire south dieselized quickly. Anybody know when the Central of Georgia last operated a steam loco in regular scheduled revenue service? Furthermore, when/where/what particular loco. Any railfan excursions or special events should be excluded.

The Best Way is "The Right Way"

-- David Godwin (wdgodwin@aol.com), March 21, 2001

Answers

This may be a little off track, but the Central had "live steam" on its roster through Jan. 1957 in the form of 4-6-0 403 (ex Sylvania Central 103), leased to the Talbotton RR. The TRR quit that month and returned the engine to the CofG, which stored the engine - it was preserved and is now on display in Savannah. I am sure that once the engine made its last run to the CofG interchange, its fires were dropped and it was pulled dead-in-tow back to the Macon shops. However, the intriguing point here is that the TRR interchanged with the CofG at Paschall, about one mile west of Junction City, and had trackage rights over the CofG into Junction City. So it was possible that on the last run the TRR ran the 403 into Junction City, as it always did during regular service. If so, technically it was a TRR run and not a CofG run, yet it would have been a case of a CofG steam engine operating over CofG rails in 1957.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), March 22, 2001.

The last run of steam has already been covered in the archives. To recap, 2-8-0 #509(displayed in Macon, Ga) pulled last official steam run in May 1953. However, May 1, 1971, the last run of the "Nancy Hanks" left Atlanta for Savannah behind Savannah and Atlanta (lettered CofGa) 4-6-2 #750((displayed in Duluth Ga). This was a scheduled revenue run, so last day of steam is determined by how you ask the question.

-- Rick Perry (RailsEnd@mindspring.com), March 21, 2001.