On December 15-16, 2011, the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society completed the acquisition and move of an historic Central of Georgia 41-foot flatcar from Rome, GA to Savannah, GA and its new home at the Georgia State Railroad Museum. The car is believed to be the last surviving example of the Central of Georgia Railway 10701 - 10800 series flatcars built in 1925 by Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. (TCI). This is an exciting and significant step for the CGRHS, being the first piece of rolling stock to be acquired by the Society for preservation and restoration.

The flatcar is remarkably intact and unmodified, retaining the original K brakes and Andrews truck frames with Simplex bolsters. The as-built weight was known to be 33,300 lbs. The actual weight, including the chains used to keep the trucks attached to the body for the lifts in Rome and Savannah, was 33,100 lbs. The flatcar was transported by truck as a permitted wide load from Rome to near Savannah on Thursday, December 16. It was off-loaded at the roundhouse Friday morning. Preparation work for the move was performed by a team of three Society members on Wednesday, December 14 with preliminary inspection and prep work having been done by two members on October 10, 2011.

For photos of the move, visit http://www.cofg.org/.

The car was donated to the CGRHS by Georgia Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company, following its identification as a CofGa freight car by a local CGRHS member. The car had been in captive service for several decades at Georgia Power's Plant Hammond at Coosa, GA, just west of Rome, but most recently had been unused for several years. The donation was formalized in September. CGRHS made all arrangements to transport the car to Savannah for restoration and display at the former Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex.

Working closely with Coastal Heritage Society (manager of the Georgia State Railroad Museum, aka the Roundhouse Railroad Museum), an agreement has been drawn up and agreed to by both CHS and CGRHS that will result in CGRHS retaining ownership and CHS providing restoration and future exhibit space for the flatcar. Restoration work will be performed at the roundhouse complex by Society members, who have committed to performing much of the labor necessary to restore the car for interpretive exhibit as part of the facility's freight car display.

CGRHS thanks Southern Company, Georgia Power Plant Hammond, Coastal Heritage Society, SS Crane & Rigging (Calhoun, GA), STI Transportation, Roehl Logistics, Tim's Crane & Rigging (Savannah) and all the individuals who participated in the activities leading to preservation of this historic CofGa flatcar.

The Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to preservation of the heritage of the CofGa and its affiliated companies. Donations are tax deductible, and can be made at the CGRHS web site here:
http://cofga.org/index.php?page=shop.br ... t&Itemid=2.

Please consider making a donation to help CGRHS complete this restoration project.

Disclosure: Stephen Syfrett is a CGRHS member and serves on the Board of Directors

Stephen,

Very cool!

If not for the stuff in between there would be no need for those more sexy things like engines and cabooses.

Congrats,

Scott

Very nice find! Industrial settings always seem to hide some goodies that would otherwise be scrapped if still on railroad property. Good luck with the restoration.

Scott,

Thank you for your suggestions for moving this car. We tried to arrange for a roll-on/roll-off move but found it was easier in this part of the country to just pick it up and set it down with cranes. The cost wasn't all that bad, either. And of course, "easier" is a relative term. I almost got an ulcer on the drive up, making phone calls to confirm the crane and truck were scheduled correctly. Ultimately, the worst thing to happen was we were about 3 hours later than hoped leaving for Savannah.

We had a 40-ton rated crane at the loading site and a 60-ton crane at the roundhouse, and with the ability to position the truck over the track, it was all pretty straight forward. At the plant in Coosa, we lifted the car off the rail, backed the truck under, and lowered the car onto the flatbed trailer. At the roundhouse in Savannah, we positioned the truck on one of the radial tracks with the crane adjacent, lifted the car, pulled the truck out and lowered the car to the rails. Clean and simple.

And I'll put in another shameless request, to anyone who might be interested and willing to help the CGRHS with this project, to please visit the CGRHS web site and consider making a donation. Here's the link:

http://cofga.org/index.php?page=shop.br ... t&Itemid=2

This project is an undertaking of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, not the Roundhouse Railroad Museum/Georgia State Railroad Museum. Contrary to what might be inferred from the way I worded my original post, the CGRHS is fully responsible for all costs associated with the acquisition and restoration of this flatcar. There will be no funding from the museum, but thanks to the Society's long-standing relationship with the museum through our volunteer service projects at the museum almost every year, we were able to arrange for the car's long-term display at the museum as well as having a great place to actually work on the car. For this we are truly thankful, because without this favorable arrangement, the car would likely meet the fate of so many other artifacts we've been reading about.

Now the fun part...I get to work up the formal restoration plan!

Since many who post here have had some involvement with restoration of a railcar, you know it is inevitable that the photos you need, and tried for months/years to find, don't show up until AFTER you've finished the restoration!

Well, in an effort to avoid that situation again, I'm putting out an appeal for everyone to check their collections, or on-line sites, and send me leads to photos of this series of CofGa cars, or perhaps TCI cars built for another railroad in the same timeframe (1925). The CGRHS has no photographs of this series of cars in the collection, and so far I've come up empty-handed. Seems the lowly flatcar isn't photographed much, unless it has a particularly interesting load on its deck. All we know for sure is that, of the 100 cars built, there was only one of this series still on the official roster as of 1957.

We'd really like to have at least one decent shot of one of these cars in service!

Any and all help would be appreciated!

Hello?? Anyone out there...(crickets chirping)...

Stephen -

Wouldn't the actual car number be listed in that official 1957 roster for this last existing car in the series?

I have my doubts you will find an actual photo of this car, unless it might be as an incidental in some other photo. Such as a train wreck. In the background of some other railroad subject. Or, as you say, for a special load. But doesn't the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society have lettering diagrams from the railroad in its archives that could show how the car was actually lettered?

Les

Les,
I don't have access to the roster book just yet to see about the number, but assuming the number is in that roster, it still does not mean the car we have is that particular car. If a previous post of mine seemed to infer that we did know for fact we had the last one on the roster, that is not the case, and I did not intended to make that inference.

We have yet to do any sanding that might reveal a number. It looks like the prior owner did a good job of covering it up. So far we have found only shadows of "OF" on one side of the center sill and "GEORGIA" on the other side, plus a paint splotch where we believe the number was, or is hidden. Nothing remains on the side sills, which to me appear to have newer, smoother black paint than that on the center sill. So, if we can't find the actual road number, we may wind up using the road number of the last car to survive on the roster.

The CGRHS does have a general lettering diagram from the late 1950's for the car series, but not the detailed stenciling diagrams we would like. We don't know for sure that they still exist. Maybe someone here will have some leads.

As for the earlier request for photos, I very seriously doubt we will ever find an in-service photo of this particular car, even if we can determine the number of the car we have "saved". That is not the quest. I'd like to find just one photo of any car from this series. We've looked through the archives and can find nothing, hence this appeal, so if anyone out there has or finds a photo, any photo, of any car in this series, I want it, please!.

I knew it was a long shot, but this has almost always been a good place to find "stuff", sometimes surprising "stuff". Just not when that "stuff" is needed for smaller players in the SE railroad scene...or so it seems. In the NE, Mid-west and Western states...no problem. Anywhere else in the US and we can seem to regurgitate minutia in a thread for weeks, but not down here. (There have been some very good books written about the major players in the SE, i.e. Southern, ACL, SAL, etc., and I think I've acquired most of them. But there's just not that much on the Central.) Actually, personally, I'm just hoping to avoid some of the anguish I experienced working on several other southeastern railroad pieces at the local mystery history museum.

As we progress with the restoration work, I'm hoping it will be documented on the CGRHS web site. I'll try to post here occasionally with a link to photos and such, but I don't do anything directly with the website. Right now we are doing all the up-front planning and will be scheduling weekend work sessions for later this year. I happen to be 4 hours away from Savannah, and the others I expect to work on the restoration are mostly 2.5 to as much as 8.5 hours away. This should be interesting. It's not going to happen quick, so maybe the information I'd like to have will show up before we finish...not afterwards!

I apologize for not posting here sooner, but from one Historical Society who just recently got a flat to another, nice car!