| Posted by Kibu on September 4, 2014 | |
This area ended up being a headache for the city of Vidalia. At one time, the Georgia & Florida railroad interchanged here with the Central of Georgia. There was, at that time, a seven track yard just north of where the unit sits, behind the photographer. Until sometime in the 2000's, an old iron girder (ballasted) bridge crossed over 280, and a large portion of the city was bisected with apparently abandoned tracks. When the one way pairing was started by the city, they sought permission to tear down the bridge, only to run into a problem. G&W, who was negotiating the purchase of GC at the time, also purchased with the intent to reopen the abandoned GF line, with the goal being to link up to Jacksonville or Brunswick (I forget which.) Vidalia began taking the old bridge out, only to be handed a court order to cease and desist, pointing to G&W's ownership of the trackage, and bridge. The city took the railroad to court, seeking imminent domain status on the bridge, only to lose the argument in court. So certain they were that G&W would lose, that they ignored the court order, and over the span of a day, quickly demolished the iron bridge, leaving only its footings. G&W won in court though, only to find the bridge destroyed and the city well on its way to destroying the footings. In the end, the city had to pay the railroad an unspecified sum of money in damages, and may have shot itself in the foot with their stunt. G&W released that they were going to rehab the old line, as well as the bridge over the Althamaha river, with the intent of offering a connection for Amtrak.
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