Waycross to Baldwin

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Who had the charters and who built the line from Waycross to Baldwin.?

-- Richard H Kearns (Kearnsrh@aol.com), November 13, 2001

Answers

There never was a one-railroad line between Waycross and Baldwin prior to the ACL-SAL merger. Following the merger,"redundant" trackage was eliminated, and new train routes were created. The results of these management actions were the elimination of the section of SAL trackage between Callahan and Gross, since the SAL mainline between Jacksonville and Savannah would be severed in Georgia. The Baldwin-Callahan-Gross section of track was referred to as SAL's Callahan Cutoff, as it was a route for freight trains (and several passenger trains) to avoid the Jacksonville congestion. The section of ex-SAL trackage between Callahan and Yulee (SAL's Callahan- Fernandina Beach line) was also abandoned. Trains from Jacksonville accessed the Fernandina Beach line at Yulee. The Callahan Cutoff (Callahan-Baldwin) is a major line, with pre-blocked manifest freights out of CSX's Rice Yard at Waycross using the line to reach Baldwin Yard and points south, and northbound freight trains to reach Waycross.

-- Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com), August 24, 2002.

I was just there on my way home to see my folks in Maxville, FL. The SAL tracks stop just past the St. Mary's RR interchange in GA.

Bob

-- Bob Arnold (arnoldrj@forscom.army.mil), March 16, 2002.


also be aware, those pictures are very large, and if you have a modem it may take some time to download them. Also if you get an error like this

Sorry, this site is temporarily unavailable! The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information. Access to this site will be restored within an hour. Please try again later. http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/9037/seaboard

try back later... geocities is a crappy web service and i will be moving this soon

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), November 15, 2001.


The line continued north from callahan to gross, fl. There it joined with the SAL line to jacksonville from the south. This line continued on to savannah and points north. This was the SAL mainline from richmond-tampa, fl, the S-Line as called in SCL days. What im not sure about is if the "s-line proper" as a whole entity is considered to go (from gross) south through callahan to balwin and to points south or continue on southeast to jacksonville, then over to baldwin and points south. I seem to think that it originally went to jacksonville and that baldwin-gross was built as a "freight cutoff" so that any freight not going to jacksonville could head south (or west) and not have to deal with some of the traffic issues around the busy jacksonville area. Only a couple passenger trains bypassed Jacksonville and stopped in callahan before heading south towards tampa or miami. At any rate this trackage was abandoned north from callahan-gross as is most of the ex-sal line south of savannah. Im not sure where it ends, but it does run north of jacksonville for some ways. Just is not a through route anymore, thats why callahan - gross was abandoned, it went nowhere...

I have a couple timetable maps here

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/9037/seaboard/

Before you check the pictures disable auto image resizeing in your internet options/advanced tab for internet explorer

-- troy nolen (email@isbroke.com), November 15, 2001.


The SAL line ran north from Baldwin to Calahan and then to where?

-- Richard H Kearns (kearnsrh@aol.com), November 15, 2001.


By the way, all ex-ACL trackage in the baldwin area is long gone... there is still an overpass over what was the ACL and it is now a rails to trails path for part of the line

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), November 13, 2001.

there was no railroad built from waycross to baldwin. the line(s) running through baldwin are ex-Seaboard Air Line. The Atlantic Coast Line also had a line running kinda near, but not through baldwin proper that crossed at grade with the SAL at a point called "tulane", it was the ACL's jacksonville - tampa mainline (AR line). There never was a line that ran from waycross to baldwin. The closest thing was ACL waycross to calahan / SAL calahan to baldwin or (ACL ONLY) Waycross to grand junction (jacksonville) to baldwin (tulane)

Now im not sure about charters...

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), November 13, 2001.


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