Ocmulgee Valley Railroad The 21-mile line from Jacksonville to Lumber City was operated as the Ocmulgee Valley Railroad from 1915 to 1917. It may have developed from the earlier logging line of the Ocmulgee River Lumber Company. An interesting description of the railroad is included in the Federal Reporter, Volume 251, October 1918, p. 161-162 (online at Google Books): "the Ocmulgee Valley Railway Company has constructed a short railway, which purports to extend from Lumber City to a point in the pine woods some miles short of Jacksonville, Telfair county, Ga. ...The Ocmulgee Valley Railroad is not a prosperous artery of commerce. During last year it spent nothing for its upkeep, paid its officers no salaries, and charged off nothing for depreciation... For the rails it uses it has never paid a dollar. This is also true of all its rolling stock and other railway material. Depots, platforms, terminals, and other such attributes of the railway are wholly nonexistent. Its president testified that he did not believe it possible that it would ever pay its operating expenses. He did not think it could be sold. Indeed, he doubted if it could be given away to any one under obligation to continue its operation. He was equally skeptical as to the possibility of bonding the property. The condition of the road and the roadbed is not less calamitous. Generally, its supports are rotten, and in at least one place crossing a stream or other depression, the stringers having rotted away, the passing train is upheld only by the rail." The Ocmulgee Valley Railroad was abandoned in 1917. RailGa.com. Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. © Steve Storey Railroad History | The Depot List | Locomotives On Display | Odds & Ends | Sources & References | Home