Louisville & Wadley Railroad

I've done quite a bit of research on the L&W over the years and will be glad to share whatever I can.

For a thumbnail sketch, it was incorporated by Louisville businessmen in

1872 with construction being completed in 1879. The Central of Georgia acquired the 10.22 mile shortline in 1898 making it part of their shortline system consisting also of the Wadley Southern, Wrightswille & Tennille, and Sylvania (Central) Railway. The L&W served a variety of industries in Louisville including the Louisville Fertilizer & Gin Co., Standard Oil and Gulf Oil facilities, cotton and guano warehouses, a furniture factory and lumber yard. It also served a lime dealer and pulpwood yard closer to Wadley. The line operated "Mixed Train Daily" passenger service until 1958. It operated Baldwin 4-6-0 locomotives until 1955 when it dieselized using CofG Baldwin switcher #37. The line petitioned for abandonment in 1960, but was sold to a group of local businessmen in 1961, and later, in 1964, to Billy Gibson, who had been general manager and who still owns the line today.

Most of the L&W is abandoned today, but the line still exists, drawing revenue from 2,800 freight cars bearing the "LW" reporting marks and operated by Flex Leasing in San Francisco. Interestingly, the L&W's current locomotive, parked more or less permanently on the west leg of the wye at Wadley, is a wonderful anachronism of an SW-1 still painted and lettered as Southern Ry. #1004 (ex-Georgia & Florida #70), leased from the Norfolk Southern.

If there's anything else I can help with, just let me know and we can communicate off-line. BTW, I am also modeling a slightly freelanced version of the L&W in HO scale. Hope this helps.

Steve Flanigan

SleuthRaptorman wrote:

I remember working in the Wadley area in 1992 and seeing that engine parked. It looked strange behind a padlocked chain-link gate... Came back a few weeks later and it was still there. When I went back there in 1996 it looked liked it hadn't moved. Always wondered what was going on with that..... It had a few black tank cars behind it in '92, couldn't really see them well enough to see any markings since they were behind some houses. I didn't check for the cars in '96, but I would guess they were still there. Wish I had taken some pictures back then.. maybe later this year I'll drive up there with a camera. The track for the most part appears to have been taken up; at least the crossing on US1 at the north end of the bypass had disappeared by the late 90's. I seem to recall the rails still being in the pavement in

1. I doubt they'll replace them.(Although the paved over crossing on GA hwy 23 between Girard and McBean- apparently part of a spur used to supply the construction of Plant Vogtle in the early 80's- had new rail and crossing markers last time I drove by there about 2 years ago. At least one abandoned line in GA appears to have been revived)

Franz T

remove the SPACE to reply

Steve, Thank you very much. This helps fill in a lot of interesting tidbits. I am actually helping a new comer to the hobby. I advised him not to do what I had done (getting all sorts of road names and eras all mixed up just because I like them), and choose something specific and stick to it. He immediately said he wanted to model something around his Georgia hometown of Louisville. So I did some research and found this railroad. We both agreed that it seemed an excellent choice for him as he is into "making the scene" and scratch building stuff. I got the whole route off of geological survey maps, but need to fill in the details as you've begun to outline below (Industries, rolling stock, etc.). I'll pass on this information to him and encourage him to e-mail you directly.

The next thing is to help him come up with some sort of simulation on a

4x8 space. I'm thinking a wing on the board for a leg of the wee. Some sort of loop for the cog trains to pass through on. Almost a Jeremy & Southwestern basic shape without the reversing loop.

BTU - now that my interest is peaked.... Do you know if the connection to the Waddle Southern was another wee to the east of the LAW wee? That is would a "Waddle" set around 1950 have two yes, or did the one serve both railroads? What sort of C of G trains and power passed through?

Also I've found a time schedules that (if I am read> I've done quite a bit of research on the L&W over the years and will be

Hi again,

I'm glad the information helped. Have your friend e-mail me directly and I'll be happy to share pass on whatever information I can. Being a small shortline, without much complexity, the L&W is a perfect prototype for a beginning model railroader, or even an advance modeler who does not have a lot of space. If we can exchange addresses off line, I'll be happy to snail mail some information and pictures I've compiled on the L&W that includes a lot of modeling notes. In fact, I even have a 4' x 8' trackplan based on your friend's hometown of Louisville, with Wadley as a staging yard. (I also have a slightly larger plan I'm currently building.)

To answer your questions, there was a second wye in Wadley to the east of the depot but before the US 1 overpass. In the middle of the second wye were the enginehouse and shops used jointly by the L&W and WS.

Regarding the CofG trains, a 1954 timetable shows that three first-class passenger trains passed through Wadley each day including the beautiful Nancy Hanks II. Also passing through were a second class through freight and a third class local freight. Power at the time would have been an E-7 on the Nancy and most likely F3's or Geeps on the freights.

The L&W and WS did operate the Short Lines Motor Transport Co. between 1928 and 1932. This company ran a Mack bus in place of several passenger trains, two round trips daily between Louisville and Wadley and one round trip daily between Wadley and Swainsboro. The rest of the time, it was strictly "mixed train daily," except Sunday, of course.

Hope this helps.

Steve

SleuthRaptorman wrote: