Historical Timeline

Chartered in 1872, the first tracks of the 10-mile long Greenville, Columbus & Birmingham Railroad were laid in 1878, connecting Greenville on the Mississippi River with Stoneville to the east. By 1881 the line reached through Indianola to Johnsonville. This 36" narrow gauge right of way would become the western anchor of the subsequent Greenville to Columbus overland route.

After many fits, starts, and setbacks, by 1889 the mainline of the Georgia Pacific Railway was completed from Atlanta, Georgia, to Greenville, Missisippi. The GP's investors had hoped to capitalize on vision a transcontinental route based in the South, but it would not come to pass. Instead, the westward expansion of rail made it only as far as the Mississippi River.

As the Richmond & Danville was being reorganized in 1894, the expanding system formed a new company called the Southern Railway Company in Mississippi to take over the former Georgia Pacific trackage in Mississippi on August 30 of that year. At that time, the state constitution required that all lines in Mississippi be owned by companies organized in the state. Meanwhile, the reorganized Richmond & Danville system would soon become the sprawling Southern Railway.

The charter of the struggling Southern Railway Company in Mississippi was amended in November of 1920 to change the name of the operation to the Columbus & Greenville Railroad. The new company was almost immediately placed in receivership.

In June of 1921, Adam Tonquin Stovall (1868-1938) was named receiver of the beleaguered Columbus & Greenville Railroad. Born and reared in Okolona, Mississippi, northwest of Columbus, Stovall was educated for law and practiced it in his hometown after studies at Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi. In 1890 he become the local attorney for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, whose mainline ran through the area. He held the position until 1921, when he retired from law to begin rehabilitation of the C&G Railroad. Stovall was a devout Baptist, active in humanitarian causes, and a leader in efforts to provide education and opportunities for citizens of color.

After two years in receivership, the railroad was sold to local interests at a receiver's sale on August 6, 1923 — thus severing ties with its corporate parent Southern Railway and its several predecessors after nearly half a century. The shortline was renamed the Columbus & Greenville Railway, and Adam Tonquin Stovall was elected president. Under his leadership, and relying heavily on secondhand motive power and rolling stock, rehabilitation of the physical plant and financial standing of the company was begun in earnest.

On March 1, 1939, A. T. Stovall died at age 70 after health issues. He served as the independent Columbus & Greenville Railway's first president up until his death, and was succeeded by his son, Robert Clark Stovall. R. C. Stovall was like his father, a lawyer by training, and had been serving as the railroad's executive vice president at the time of his father's death.

In the fall of 1965, the Columbus & Greenville took delivery of two road switchers from General Motor's Electro-Motive Division. These SD28 models turned out to be 2 of only 6 ever produced, and would be the last new power the shortline would ever purchase. They were ordered with adaptations to suit the Delta Route's light trackage and provided immediate relief to the aging Baldwins. Unlike the Baldwins, however, their time in the Mississippi Delta would be comparatively brief: the coming Illinois Central Gulf absorption would take them elsewhere in less than a decade.

The Illinois Central Gulf Railroad became a corporate reality on August 10, 1972. On the 31st of that month the new company announced that the Fernwood, Columbia & Gulf and the Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern had been added to the system. According to its agreement worked out 1in 1969, the sale of the Columbus & Greenville Railway to the new ICG system became final on September 29th.

The former Columbus & Greenville remained a part of the Illinois Central Gulf for only 37 months. Deteriorating right of way — and as a result deteriorating freight service — coupled with rumors that the ICG planned to abandon the route as a through line prompted at least two regional development groups to organize to insist that the ICG maintain adequate service to former C&G customers. As a result, the Mississippi Public Service Commission ordered the ICG to take steps necessary to reinstate all of the trains that were running at the time of the purchase. This prompted to ICG to offer the line at sale to local interests. A new corporation was chartered in August 1974 for that purpose.

In an effort to diversify its revenue base, in 1987 a new shortline holding company was formed called CAGY Transportation Industries. The Columbus & Greenville itself became a subsidiary of the new corporation, as well as two new shortlines developed through leases from the Norfolk Southern: the Luxapalila Valley Railroad, based in Columbus and operating the westernmost remaining portion of the Southern's mainline to Birmingham; and the Chattooga & Chickamauga, operating former Tennessee Alabama & Georgia and Central of Georgia segments turned branchlines, both out of Chattanooga.