Click the image above to view the Central of Georgia route map, April 1952. Credit: OAR Collection

The Central of Georgia Railway entered Montgomery through the purchase of the Montgomery & Eufaula Railroad. The Montgomery & Eufaula was chartered January 13, 1860, but the War Between the States and the chaotic economic conditions that followed until 1869 delayed actual construction. The road was opened to Union Springs on June 10, 1869, to Eufaula on October 1, 1871, and to a connection with the Southwestern Railroad of Georgia in May of 1873.

The Montgomery & Eufaula fell upon hard times and entered receivership in 1873. The property was sold to William Wadley (President of the Central Rail Road & Banking Company of Georgia) on May 1, 1879. Col. Wadley transferred the title to the Montgomery & Eufaula Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the CRR&B Co., on June 5 of that same year. The new company went through the financial wringer with the rest of the Central Rail Road & Banking Co.’s system and emerged as part and parcel of the Central of Georgia Railway when it was formed in 1895.

While the M&E was only about 81 miles in length, it managed to promote a fairly respectable passenger business. By 1878, it was advertising itself as "The Eufaula Route" and boasted that it was part of a route that carried "Through sleepers daily from Louisville, Kentucky, to Florida with only one change." As late as 1931, the Central was offering double daily service between Montgomery and Atlanta. The night trains did not survive the Great Depression and the day trains, numbers 15 and 16, were discontinued on May 31, 1952, bringing to a close all passenger service to and from Montgomery on the Central of Georgia Railway.

The Central of Georgia 2-8-0 Consolidation switching cars at Montgomery in April, 1940. Credit: Howard K. Vollrath collection.

The Central of Georgia had no yard or engine terminal in Montgomery, but used the facilities of the Western Railway of Alabama in Montgomery from 1899. Its passenger trains originated and terminated at Montgomery’s Union Station. The Central of Georgia Railway was controlled by the Illinois Central from 1909 until it entered receivership in December 1932, and was ultimately controlled by Southern Railway, which assumed control June 17, 1963. The Southern Railway Company was merged into the Norfolk Southern Corporation on July 1, 1982.