The Chattahoochee Brick Company built a line out of Columbus, Georgia and was known as the Columbus Southern Railway when it opened its line to Albany, Georgia in 1890. The railroad was absorbed by the Georgia & Alabama Railway in 1896 and later merged into the Seaboard Air Line in 1902.[2] The Seaboard Air Line merged into the Seaboard Coast Line in 1967, the SCL was merged into the Seaboard System in 1983 and became CSX Transportation in 1986.[3]
CSX put the route from Albany to Dawson out of service due to a lack of traffic over the line.[4] RailTex made an offer on the line and on December 14, 1990 the Georgia Great Southern was created as a division of the South Carolina Central Railroad to operate the new acquisition. However, day-to-day operation of the railroad was actually incorporated with a fellow South Carolina Central division, the Georgia & Alabama.[5] The GGS rostered a single locomotive, a rebuilt GP7u numbered 2130.[6]
The Georgia Great Southern served as a vital link between the RailTex subsidiaries in the area and Gulf & Ohio subsidiary Atlantic & Gulf at Albany. As such, most carloads were simply bridge traffic between Norfolk Southern and the Atlantic & Gulf at Albany to the Georgia & Alabama at Dawson. Traffic patterns changed again in 1994 as the railroad ceased operations over the entire line.[7] The Georgia Great Southern division became redundant following acquisition of trackage rights over Norfolk Southern into Albany in 1995.[4]
Although out of service the railroad was merged into the Georgia Southwestern Railroad in 1995.[1]
