Georgia Road Transportation

GP15T

The very first acquisition after the Florida & Gulf Industries (FGI) following the takeover of the Florida & Gulf Coast Railroad (FGC) after the exit by MDRail Transportation was that of the Apalachicola Northern Railroad. This short line was one of several heritage short lines in the Deep South, which included long standing names like the Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay RR (ASAB–later the Bay Line (BAYL), The Meridian & Bigbee Railroad (MB and later MBNR), Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad (CIRR), Valdosta Southern Railway (VSO and Later VSRR) and others. Most of these railroads were industry owned, usually by a paper mill conglomerate or in some cases purely independent. By the 2000s, imported fluff pulp, shifts to electronic mail and economics changes found most of these lines in decline. Apalachicola Northern Railroad (AN) was one of the first when Port St. Joe paper opted to close its aging paper mill at Apalachicola, FL. In a few short years later, A barge to train coal contract ended, leaving the railroad devoid of industry, save a chipping plant and a Georgia Pacific saw mill near Apalachicola. FGC purchased the railroad from St, Joe, mainly to gain yard space at the AN-FGC interchange at Chattahoochee, FL and for its idle fleet of motive power and rolling stock.

The AN owned a well-maintained group of SW1500s and three GP15T units, all bought new in the late 1970s and early 1980s to serve the paper mill and the barge loadout. When the mill closed, AN sold its fleet of SW1200 and NW2 fleet, retaining the three GP15T and five SW1500 units for the barge to train coal contract with Seminole Power. Once CSX bid away this business, the AN train movement slowed to near nothing. Owners offered the remaining locomotives and right of way to the FGC, who moved the operational base from Port St. Joe to Chattahoochee, FL. FGC quickly redirected the power to its own operations, leaving only minimum power based at Chattahoochee, FL to work remaining industry on the almost dormant AN. When Georgia Pacific opted to restart its sawmill near Apalachicola the short line saw a modest regular business increase. This new business added to ongoing moves of woodchip loads from the chipper mill on the AN to the FGC Cross-Florida Division, where FGC delivered them to the paper mills still running along the Gulf Coast.

Many of the blue SW1500s quickly gained FGC Sunburst Standard Scheme paint and were assigned to switching operations along the FGC-AFG combined system. The two GP15Ts remained on the AN to work existing business, still in the tattered yellow scheme. Eventually they were repainted in FGC corporate colors in 2023.