Valdosta Southern

Company History: Responding to the threatened abandonment of the line serving their paper mill, Owens-Illinois purchased the line from Valdosta, Georgia to Madison, Florida from Georgia & Florida Railway and began operations as the Valdosta Southern Railroad in 1954. The paper mill was at Clyattville, 10 miles south of Valdosta. The line south of Clyattville all the way to Madison (18 miles away) was abandoned in 1972. The star of the VSO diesel fleet was #473, an SW1200 built for Coos Bay Lumber in 1954. It was equipped with dynamic brakes and large air reservoirs – features that had little use in this part of Georgia. In 1992, the paper company sold the railroad to a small shortline group and it was rechristened Valdosta Railway.

Successor/Parent History: The VR was launched in 1992 as part of the Rail Management & Consulting shortline group to takeover operation of the 10 mile former Valdosta Southern line from Valdosta to Clyattville, in south central Georgia. They joined the Genesee & Wyoming family of shortlines in 2005. Traffic includes farm products, chemicals, forest products, plastics, pulp and paper.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.