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panamacity It was the early 1900s, and U.S. ports were booming. A newly developed port in Panama City, Florida, was expected to join the ranks of other popular U.S. southern ports such as New Orleans. A.B. Steele was a renowned lumberman who owned one of Atlanta’s most successful lumber companies. Driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, Steele devised a plan to link the Panama City port to Atlanta, one of the South’s most influential cities, via rail. A railroad, he believed, could also meet the demand for exported timber and forest products from the area. Steele was even able to convince other area business owners of the railroad’s potential and succeeded in securing funding to finish the line from Asa Candler, founder of Coca-Cola. However, the port never became as instrumental as many hoped, so the railroad generated a mediocre business almost solely from carrying timber-based freight. Passenger service commenced in June 1908, and within a few years, the railroad dispatched four passenger trains per day.

Genesee & Wyoming

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bayl_state The current Bay Line Railroad operates between Panama City, Florida, and Dothan, Alabama, including a branch from Grimes to Abbeville, Alabama, reached via CSX Transportation trackage rights north of Dothan. A line also connects Dothan eastward to Hilton, Georgia. The railroad interchanges with CSX Transportation in Dothan and at the former Louisville & Nashville crossing at Cottondale, Florida; interchange is also made with G&W property Hilton & Albany Railroad at Hilton, Ga. The company's main line between Panama City and Dothan was completed in 1908 by the Atlanta & Saint Andrews Bay Railroad (ASAB), with a vision of freight service all the way to Atlanta. That goal was never achieved, but the shortline railroad did provide steady freight traffic from the Panama City ports and, for a time, connecting passenger service from regional railroads to the Gulf beaches.

The Stone Container Corporation purchased the Atlanta & Saint Andrews Bay in 1987. Then in 1994 Stone sold the assets of the railroad to Rail Management Corporation, which created the new Bay Line Railroad company to operate the line. Genesee & Wyoming shortline operator acquired all the assets of Rail Management in 2005, including the Bay Line. Today the line is 154 miles long and handles aggregates, chemicals, coal, food and feed products, forest products, ores and minerals, steel, and scrap. Shops remain at Panama City, Florida.

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1994 Official Guide ad / collection

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BAYL route map / web

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BAYL scrapbook / JCH

Steam Locomotives

Diesel Motive Power

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The Short Line 104 / Aug 1990 / collection

First Generation

Bay Line #500

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP7
  • type:B-B light road switcher
  • built:May 1953, EMD #18416
  • series:2610 produced 1949-54
  • engine:EMD 567B (16 cyl, 1500 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Reading #616
    to Bay Line #500, 1976
    to South Central Florida #9010
  • builder

    Bay Line #501

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP7
  • type:B-B light road switcher
  • built:Jan 1952, EMD #15943
  • series:2610 produced 1949-54
  • engine:EMD 567B (16 cyl, 1500 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Bay Line #501, nose chopped
    to South Central Florida #9011
    to Brandywine Valley #9011
  • builder

    Bay Line #511

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP7m
  • type:B-B light road switcher
  • built:Jan 1952, EMD #15944
  • series:2610 produced 1949-54
  • engine:EMD 567B (16 cyl, 1500 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Bay Line #2
    wrecked 1975, rebuilt as Bay Line #511
    to South Central Florida #9012
    to Brandywine Valley #9012
  • builder

    Bay Line #913

  • builder:American Locomotive Company
  • model:RS-1
  • type:B-B light road switcher
  • built:Feb 1950, Alco #77848
  • series:353 produced 1941-60
  • engine:Alco 539 (6 cyls, 1000hp)
  • notes:
  • to Hartford & Slocumb #913, 1984
    to Tennessee Valley Railway Museum
  • builder
    tag_jump

    See also our complete Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum scrapbook in Preservation

    Alco demonstrator #DL600

  • builder:American Locomotive Company
  • model:RSD-7
  • type:C-C road switcher
  • built:Jan 1954, Alco #80960
  • series:2 produced 1954
  • engine:Alco 244 (16 cyl, 2250 hp)
  • notes:
  • similar to DL-600A series, 2400 hp
    later to Santa Fe #600
  • builder

    Second Generation

    Bay Line #500

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Aug 1969, EMD #35176
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #713
    to Illinois Central Gulf #9532
    to Bay Line #500, 1990
  • builder

    Bay Line #501

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Aug 1969, EMD #35170
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #707
    to Illinois Central Gulf #9526
    to Paducah & Louisville #2000
    to Bay Line #501, 1990
  • builder

    Bay Line #502

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Aug 1969, EMD #35389
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Penn Central #7760
    to Conrail #7760
    to Gulf & Mississippi #7760
    to Bay Line #502, 1988
  • builder

    Bay Line #504

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Oct 1969, EMD #35419
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Penn Central #7790
    to Conrail #7790
    to Gulf & Mississippi #7790
    to Bay Line #504, 1988
  • builder

    Bay Line #506

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Nov 1969, EMD #35440
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Penn Central #7811
    to Conrail #7811
    to Gulf & Mississippi #7811
    to Bay Line #506, 1988
  • builder

    Bay Line #507

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP39
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Jul 1970, EMD #36312
  • series:23 produced 1969-70
  • engine:EMD 645E3 (12 cyl, 2300 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Altanta & St. Andrews Bay #507
    traded to VMV for 2nd #507 (GP38), 1990
  • builder

    Bay Line #509

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38-2
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:May 1973, EMD #72686-2
  • series:1801 produced 1972-86
  • engine:EMD 645E (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Bay Line #509
  • builder

    Bay Line #510

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38-2
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Jun 1975, EMD #75623-1
  • series:1801 produced 1972-86
  • engine:EMD 645E (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Bay Line #510
  • builder

    Bay Line #511

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:GP38
  • type:B-B road switcher
  • built:Aug 1969, EMD #35378
  • series:706 produced 1966-71
  • engine:EMD 645 (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Penn Central #7749
    to Conrail #7749
    to Bay Line #511, 1990
  • builder

    Atlanta & Saint Andrews Bay #506

  • builder:Electro Motive Division
  • model:SD40
  • type:C-C special duty road unit
  • built:Jun 1966, EMD #31766
  • series:865 produced 1966-72
  • engine:EMD 645E (16 cyl, 3000 hp)
  • notes:
  • blt Atlanta & Saint Andrews Bay #506
    to Helm Leasing Company #506
  • builder

    Rolling Stock

    tag_pinLocations

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    Click to see the Bay Line shop area plotted on a Google Maps page

    bayl_shop7 bayl_shop8 bayl_shop9

    Panama City, Fl / Jul 1990 / RWH

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    Click to see the Cottondale diamond plotted on a Google Maps page

    tag_closeup Southbound Runby

    journal_rwh

    Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time. In the fall of 1991, we made one more of many family trips along Interstate 10 from our home in Louisiana across the Panhandle to visit my sister in Jacksonville, Florida. Dad decided to get off the interstate at Cottondale to check on the Bay Line, just in case. No sooner had we parked the family sedan and I walked over to a field near the tracks than I heard the unmistakable blast of a Nathan 3-chime. Out of nowhere appeared Bay Line #510, hauling the mail with a southbound local in tow -- white "extra" flags flapping in the wind. We could not have planned it better if we tried.

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    Cottondale, Fl / Nov 1991 / JCH

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    BAYL scrapbook page / JCH

    Publications

    asab_time1

    May 1950 timetable / collection

    asab_time2
    asab_brochure1

    May 1950 brochure / collection

    asab_guide65

    1965 Official Guide ad / collection

    asab_guide72

    1972 Official Guide ad / collection

    bayl_article_TS78may1986

    The Short Line 78 / May 1986 / collection

    bayl_guide

    1994 Official Guide map / collection

    tag_scrapScrapbook

    bayl_scrapbook1
    bayl_scrapbook2
    bayl_scrapbook3
    bayl_scrapbook4
    bayl_scrapbook5
    bayl_scrapbook6
    bayl_scrapbook7
    bayl_scrapbook8
    bayl_scrapbook9
    bayl_scrapbook10
    bayl_scrapbook11
    bayl_scrapbook12
    bayl_scrapbook13
    bayl_scrapbook14
    bayl_scrapbook15
    bayl_scrapbook16

    all pages from Bay Line scrapbook / JCH

    tag_lagnLagniappe

    journal_rwh

    The Bay Line was my first real teenage exercise in taking thoughtful roster shots. It was a hot summer day when we visited the Panama City shops, and I was thoroughly impressed by the fact that we could sign a waiver in the office and subsequently crawl all over the property without hinderance. Lucky for me, most the Geeps were in the stable that day; the railroad was quiet. That give us plenty of time to look inside the impressive shop building and study all the idled 38s outside. Nothing beats the all-business Spartan cab of a 38, and the Bay Line had plenty of them around in the 1990s. My dad appreciated the fact that several of the pre Dash-2 movers could trace their roots all the way back to his beloved Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Me, I was busy snapping up roster shots and capturing all the numbers. The sharp green and yellow paint schemes impressed me even as a teenager, and you have to like a shortline pike that keeps some cabooses active on the property. It was a great visit. And thanks to the Bay Line stable of General Purpose movers, I fell in love with the diesel locomotive wedge shot and science of collecting roster photos.

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    BAYL route map / JCH

    Links / Sources

    This page was updated on 2021-09-13