Anyone know any details of the Frisco F-3 5008 being lashed-up (or only parked close) to a Central of Georgia covered wagon at East Point, GA?? Run-through service? Or something else? Thanks, Tom G. PS: C of G's diesel paint scheme was pretty neat! 5008 looks spiffy too!
Tom - Nice pic indeed. Didn't the Frisco consider acquiring the Central of Georgia in the mid-1950's? Can anyone confirm? If so, maybe it is related to that, or if not, probably a run-through. Ken
From my recent post on another thread: I am disposing of magazines and had some issues of Modern Railroads Magazine and ran across an interesting from the '60's listing mergers, both approved and denied, leading up their prediction of how the merger world would ultimately shake down. Having said that, they listed a takeover attempt by the Frisco of the Central of Georgia that was filed on 12/06/55 and denied by the ICC on 11/14/58. This begs the question as a discussion of what happened (if anyone can remember) and speculation of what the future, both at the time and for the long term.
Wonder why they denied it? It would have been essentially an end-to-end merger. Probably suffered from strong lobbying by the powers that be in the south - Southern, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, etc. Illinois Central probably didn't like it either - they were one of IC's passenger partners in getting to Florida from Chicago. Ken
There were two primary reasons cited. 1.The merger would reduce competition. ( I believe that the opposite would be the case.) 2.The Frisco acquired CoG stock control without permission of the ICC. (It's not nice to mess with the regulators) The Frisco divested the stock to the Southern during 1963.
Between Dec 1955 and May 1960, the power-short Central of Georgia went to the Frisco on three occasions to lease motive power. The Frisco was also powered constrained, and especially so during the summer wheat rush, and it had to ask the COG for the return of the power on a couple of occasions. Perhaps the Frisco extended this "courtesy" to COG because the Frisco owned 71% of that railroad. The railroads agreed to a rental rate of $0.26 per mile During April 1963, the COG returned to the Frisco once again and asked to lease motive power. By this time, the Frisco as required by the ICC, had sold its CoG stock to the Southern, and the Frisco told the CoG to "bugger-off". The attached pdf file shows which units were leased, when they were leased, and the number of miles each ran-off on the CoG.
Karl, Thanks for information. I wonder what would have been if the Frisco had been successful in its acquisition of the C of G. The BNSF could advertise 'Coast to Coast Service.' Jerome
I assume the FA1's and FB1's that SLSF leased to CG were EMD repowered units? Anybody know? When I have a chance, I'll check them on Karl's list. Don't have time now. K
Ken, of the FA1/FB1 units leased to CoG, only 5208, 5311, and 5312 had been repowered by EMD. Units 5114, 5210, 5214, 5223, 5229, and 5314 had not been repowered. Here's my version of Karl's list updated with re-power dates.
