Georgia Railroad

Georgia Railroad and Banking Company

Georgia Railroad 1026, an EMD GP7—on permanent display in Duluth, Georgia.
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Previous gauge	5 ft (1,524 mm)and converted to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886
Length	331 mi (533 km)

The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company (reporting mark GA) also seen as "GARR", was a historic railroad and banking company that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia. In 1967 it reported 833 million revenue-ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 331 miles (533 km) of road and 510 miles (820 km) of track.

The company was chartered in 1833 in Augusta, Georgia. In 1835, the charter was amended to include banking. Originally the line was chartered to build a railroad from Augusta to Athens, with a branch to Madison. It was converted to 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) in 1886

The 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge railroad opened in 1845 with J. Edgar Thomson as its Chief Engineer and Richard Peters as its first Superintendent.

At that time the rates were as follows:

Several other railroads were then under construction:

The Georgia Railroad decided to extend the Madison branch to Terminus (Atlanta) and thereby compete with the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia (later the Central of Georgia Railroad), which together with the Macon 7 Western Railroad, was competing for traffic through Charleston's rival port of Savannah, Georgia. By 1850, this railroad had built 213 miles (343 km) of track and was up to 232 miles (373 km) by 1860. At the time, goods from the Mississippi and Ohio valleys had to go by riverboat to New Orleans and then via coastal steamships around the Florida Keys, to get to the big population centers in the Northeast. Shipping cross-country by rail to the ports of Charleston and Savannah made perfect economic sense.