Private company

Central of Georgia Railway

The Central of Georgia Railway (reporting mark CG; abbreviated CofG) was a railroad in Georgia, United States, that was active from 1895–1963.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1895Founded1
  • HeadquartersSavannah1

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The Central of Georgia Railway (reporting mark CG; abbreviated CofG) was a railroad in Georgia, United States, that was active from 1895–1963. It started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was constructed to join the Macon and Western Railroad at Macon, Georgia, in the United States, and run to Savannah. This created a rail link from Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River, to seaports on the Atlantic Ocean. It took from 1837 to 1843 to build the railroad from Savannah to the eastern bank of the Ocmulgee River at Macon; a bridge into the city was not built until 1851.2

How it started

Corporate history

In 1888, the Richmond Terminal Company, a Virginia holding company, gained control of the Central. The financial problems of the parent company forced the CofG into bankruptcy, and it was sold at foreclosure three years later, being reorganized as the Central of Georgia Railway on November 1, 1895.

In 1907, railroad magnate and financier E. H. Harriman gained a controlling interest in the railway, and in 1909, sold his interest to the Illinois Central Railroad, which he also controlled. In 1932, during the Great Depression, the CofG went into receivership, from which it did not emerge until 1948. In 1956, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway ("Frisco"), seeking a route to Atlantic Ocean ports, gained control of the CofG, but the Interstate Commerce Commission declined to approve a merger of the two roads, so the Frisco sold its CofG stock to the Southern Railway in 1963.

At the end of 1956, the CofG operated 1,764 miles (2,839 km) of road and 2,646 miles (4,258 km) of track; that year it reported 3208 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 73 million passenger-miles. Those totals do not include the 144-mile (232 km) Savannah and Atlanta, the 10-mile (16 km) L&W, the 20-mile (32 km) Wadley Southern or the 36-mile (58 km) Wrightsville and Tennille.

The CofG became a Southern Railway subsidiary on June 17, 1963. In 1971, the Southern formed the Central of Georgia Railroad to merge the Central of Georgia Railway, the Savannah and Atlanta Railway, and the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad.

From Wikipedia’s article on Central of Georgia Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1895Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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