This line was originally built by the Georgia Midland and Gulf Railroad. Chartered in 1886 as the Georgia Midland & Gulf RR to build a 99-mile line south from McDonough through Griffin, Williamson and Woodbury to Columbus. The line ran parallel to the Central of Georgia through Experiment and Griffin and crossed the C of G at the "Southern Diamond" in downtown Griffin. The line was completed on December 1, 1887, but from the start was barely able to generate enough revenue to pay its construction debts. In 1890, the GM&G RR leased the Columbus & Southern Ry, which operated an 88-mile line from Columbus to Albany, in hopes to improve the financial condition of the GM&G RR. The lease did little to help the GM&G RR and within a year it gave up the lease. For most of its existence, the GM&G RR struggled to stay out of receivership and in 1896 succumbed to J.P. Morgan and the Southern RY. In 1896, Morgan purchased the GM&G RR to benefit the Southern RY, reorganized and renamed it as the Georgia Midland RY. A long term lease of the entire line was given to the Southern RY and within a few years was absorbed into the SR system.
For many years this route made up Southern's access line to Columbus from Atlanta, and it was known as the "M" line. This is the rail line that President Franklin D. Roosevelt used to reach his "Little White House" in Warm Springs, GA. Southern Railway abandoned the section from Rover, just NE of Williamson, to Columbus in the early 1980s before the name change to Norfolk Southern. The right-of-way from Rover to Columbus is actually railbanked by the State of Georgia. Although the rails are gone, the State could theoretically re-open the line. Locations on this abandoned portion, from Williamson to the SW were Jolly, Concord, Neal, Molena, Woodbury, Raleigh, Warm Springs, Nebula, Shiloh, Oak Mountain, Waverly Hall, Ellerslie, Midland, Flat Rock and into Columbus. Norfolk Southern sold the section from Experiment to Towalaga in 1991 to the Roosevelt Railroad Museum. The section from Grove (S of McDonough) to Greenwood to Hwy. 155 in Luella is still operated by NS. The NS Training Center is near Greenwood. NS also operates a portion of the line from Griffin to Westbrook to Rover.
The following information was received from John Gilbert in March 2003:
"The "M" line running between McDonough and Griffin Georgia is actually not abandoned. It was purchased in 1991 by the Roosevelt railroad Museum. I am heading a group of volunteers and we are hacking the line out of woods and are actually running light rail equipment on about two miles of the line as we speak. I had also been calling the line "abandoned" but I was told by museum President John Rivers that word abandoned is actually a legal term so I no longer use it. We are having a car built to look like a small trolley to run paying passengers along the line and are just weeks away from having it completed.
This is the line on which President Roosevelt traveled from Washington to Warm Springs, GA. in the 1940s. We are hoping to preserve the line for future generations."
Just N of Experiment and Griffin looking toward those locations, the rails are still in place. This section from Towaliga to Experiment was sold by Norfolk Southern in 1991 to the Roosevelt Railroad Museum. A local group plans to start running passenger excursions on this section soon. (Photo from August 2002)
