Misplaced Pages

Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad

Brunswick headquarters in the early 1900s
Overview
Dates of operation	1902–1904
Successor	Atlantic and Birmingham Railway
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad (B&B) was a railroad in southeastern United States. Its main route ran from Brunswick, Georgia to Sessoms (just east of Nicholls, Georgia).

History

The Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad was chartered on December 11, 1900. In 1902–03, it built a 49-mile (79 km) line from Brunswick, Georgia to Offerman, Georgia and a 19-mile (31 km) line from Bushnell, Georgia to Ocilla, Georgia. The B&B purchased the Offerman and Western Railroad on July 1, 1902, and the Ocilla and Irwinville Railroad on February 19, 1903. The railroad ran into financial troubles and was purchased by the Atlantic and Birmingham Railway in April 1904.

The Atlantic and Birmingham then became part of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad (AB&A) when it took over the A&B network on April 12, 1906. The Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad was acquired by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1926. The Atlantic Coast Line operated the AB&A network as the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad (AB&C) until 1946, when they fully merged the AB&C into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. This gave the Atlantic Coast Line a second line to Brunswick (their first route to Brunswick was the former Brunswick and Western Railroad).

The segment of the line built between Brunswick, Georgia and Alma, Georgia was abandoned by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1953. The remainder of the line survived the 1967 merger of the ACL and Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, and the acquisition of the Family Lines (CRR, L&N, GA, AWP) into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982. The remaining segment was known as the Alma Subdivision. After the Seaboard System became CSX Transportation, the line between Sessoms and Alma was abandoned in 1986.

Current conditions

The railroad's former headquarters are today the Ritz Theatre in the Brunswick Old Town Historic District.

A small segment of the line in Brunswick south of Southern Junction is still in service and is part of CSX's Brunswick Subdivision (which primarily uses the former Brunswick and Western Railroad north and west of Southern Junction).

Much of the railroad's former right of way parallels State Route 32 and much of it is now a power line corridor.

Historic stations

References

1. Offerman & Western Railroad (RailGA)
2. Storey, Steve (September 14, 2018). "Railroads - Postwar Expansion and Consolidation". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
3. "Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast Railroad (GEORGIA'S RAILROADS, 1833-2015: Historic Context and Statewide Survey)" (PDF). Georgia Department of Transportation. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
4. "Wesley Thomas Hargrett collection". sclfind.libs.uga.edu. Hargrett Manuscripts and Russell Library Finding Aids. Retrieved August 8, 2021. The collection consists of the papers of Wesley Thomas Hargrett from 1889-1919. The materials pertain to business operations of various Georgia railway companies
5. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Florence and Atlanta Division Timetable (1982)
6. ^ Brunswick to Nichols (Abandoned Rails)
7. ^ CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable (2005)
8. "Georgia Railroads: Passenger Stations & Stops" (PDF). The Branch Line Society. Retrieved August 1, 2023.

External links

• Brunswick & Birmingham Railroad, Steve Storey, Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage
• Brunswick & Birmingham Railroad Office, Steve Storey, Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage

• Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads
• Railway companies established in 1900
• Railway companies disestablished in 1904
• Predecessors of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad