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The fall membership meeting of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, Inc., has been scheduled for Friday–Saturday, October 13–14, 2017, in Savannah, Ga. Our meeting will include a tour of the Georgia Ports Authority on Friday afternoon, a membership meeting (including board elections) Friday night, and activities all day Saturday.

At 3:00 p.m. on Friday, October 13, we’ll depart the Holiday Inn Express (see address below) by bus for a tour of the Georgia Ports Authority. (Note: You must register in advance for this tour. A photo ID is required for entrance to the Ports). We should return to the motel around 5:30 p.m. (Note that due to the Ports tour, we will not have an archive work session.)

At 6:45 p.m. Friday night, we’ll have the annual meeting of the Society’s Board of Directors in the meeting room at the motel. Members are welcomed to attend, although the meeting is for discussion of various Society administrative business. At 7:30 p.m., we’ll have our annual business meeting, which will include elections for Board of Directors. Following the business meeting, CGRHS member Thomas Bordeaux will give a presentation on the history of the CofGa’s Tybee Branch. (Our bus tour on Saturday will include visits to some portions of the Tybee Branch.)

On Saturday, we’ll depart the Holiday Inn Express around 8:45 a.m. for a bus tour to various CofGa sites. At 10:00 a.m., we’ll depart via charter boat from the Bull River Marina for a unique trip to see the remaining trestle pilings from the CofGa’s Tybee Branch crossing of St. Augustine Creek. We’ll also follow the abandoned Tybee roadbed along the South Channel of the Savannah River, returning to the marina around noon. (Note: Due to the number of seats available on the boat, early registration is highly recommended.)

After lunch, we’ll visit the Georgia State Railroad Museum to see the restoration work being done on the Society’s 1925 CofGa flat car. Members will also have an opportunity to see the Museum’s other CofGa equipment. After leaving the Museum, we’ll visit several other CofGa sites in the Savannah area and should return to the motel around 4:00 p.m. (Note that the exact itinerary is subject to change.) There will not be any activities Saturday night. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Holiday Inn Express, 7210 Georgia Highway 21, Port Wentworth, GA 31407 (912-964-8900). The group rate is $99.00 per night. Please be sure to mention that you are with the “Central GA Railway Historical Society” when calling to make reservations. The cut-off date for that rate is September 28, 2017. (Rooms are available Thursday night through Saturday night.)

Registration for the weekend’s events is $35 per person (or $55 per couple). To register, send your name, address, and number of registrations (include individual names for name tags) to Society Secretary/Treasurer Eddie Shaw (see address in the last issue of The Right Way). Payment can be made by check or money order payable to CGRHS. Registration can also be made here using PayPal. Early registration is highly recommended!

More specific details will be posted as available.

Update (3/16/2017): We’ve added several rooms to our block at the Holiday Inn for Thursday night.

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The spring meeting of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, Inc., has been scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 21–22, 2017, in Statesboro, Ga. Our meeting will include an archive work session on Friday, a presentation on Friday night, and a bus tour of various CofGa related sites in Statesboro, Sylvania, and Rocky Ford on Saturday.

Starting at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, we’ll have an archive work session in the Dogwood meeting room at the Holiday Inn Statesboro (See motel information below). Our current plans are to continue the process of sorting and organizing the Society’s equipment drawings that was begun at our October meeting. We still have a great deal of work to do to sort and organize our collection, and members are encouraged to stop by anytime during the day to help!

At 7:00 p.m. Friday evening, we’ll have a presentation in the hotel’s meeting room on the railroads in the Statesboro area. We’ll also have a brief overview of some of the sites we’ll see during our bus tour on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, we’ll depart the hotel at 9:00 a.m. for a bus tour of several Central of Georgia sites in the Statesboro area. We’ll then travel to Sylvania to see the remaining trackage of the Sylvania Central and the Savannah & Atlanta Railway in the industrial area near downtown, currently operated by a shortline railroad. (Editor’s note: See the article “The Sylvania Central’s Trackage at Sylvania, Ga.” in the January–March 2015 issue [Vol. 19, No. 1] of The Right Way.)

Next, we’ll follow the long-abandoned route of the Sylvania Central west from Sylvania to Rocky Ford, where it connected with the Central of Georgia’s Savannah–Macon mainline (now operated by Norfolk Southern). At Rocky Ford, we’ll visit the site of the CofGa depot, see the remaining brick warehouse and other historic buildings, and trace roadbed of both the Sylvania Central and Foy’s Tram (a private railroad that connected to the CofGa at Rocky Ford via a wye). The bus should return to the hotel by 4:00 p.m.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Holiday Inn Statesboro, 455 Commerce Drive, Statesboro, GA 30461. The group rate is $119 per night. Reservations can be made by contacting the motel at (912) 489-4545 and asking for the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society block (code: CGR). Rooms may also be reserved online at www.holidayinn.com (code: CGR) or by using this link. The cut-off date for the block is March 21, 2017. Rooms are available for Friday and Saturday nights. (Update: We’ve added several rooms to our block at the Holiday Inn for Thursday night.)

Registration for the weekend’s events is $30 per person or $50 per couple. To register, send your name, address, and number of registrations (include individual names for nametags), along with a check or money order (payable to CGRHS) to secretary/treasurer Eddie Shaw at the address in the last issue of The Right Way. Registrations can also be made here. Early registration is highly recommended!

Additional information will be posted as available on the Society’s web site at www.cofga.org.