Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad

I tend to think about the Chattahoochee Industrial I knew in the late 1980s and 90s as one of those shortlines that held on to a great deal of local character, before the great wave of national shortline holding companies that have tended to homogenize fleets, paint schemes, and operations. Any Deep South railfan from the late 1960s on could recognize their blue and red homage to the Confederate flag pasted on the side of their white and black locomotives. Unfortunately, I made it to Cedar Springs too late to see the Alco road switcher fleet plying the line, but at least a 1990 visit found most of them still in a dead line and open for viewing. And their pair of stout SW1500s, coupled elephant style and ready for business, is surely one of the reasons I like that EMD model to this day. The CIRR I knew has disappeared into a sea of orange and black, but that line of Alco RS-1's will not soon be forgotten.