Tifton and Northeastern Railroad

The Tifton and Northeastern Railroad was a railroad running from Tifton, Georgia northeast to Fitzgerald, Georgia, a distance of 25 miles. It was built in the late 1800s and it later became part of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad networks.

History
The Tifton and Northeastern Railroad chartered on October 15, 1891 by business interests in Tifton. The line was completed in 1896. The company's first president was Captain Henry Tift, who founded the town of Tifton and operated a sawmill there. The community of Mystic, Georgia at the north end of the line was named for Tift's hometown of Mystic, Connecticut.

Both the Tifton and Northeastern Railroad and the Tifton, Thomasville and Gulf Railway were acquired by the Atlantic and Birmingham Railroad on December 3, 1903, which was renamed the Atlantic and Birmingham Railway (A&B). This gave the Atlantic and Birmingham a continuous branch line, known as the Thomasville Branch, from Fitzgerald (where it connected to the rest of the A&B network) to Thomasville.

The Atlantic and Birmingham then became part of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad (AB&A) when it took over the A&B network on April 12, 1906. The AB&A ran daily passenger trains from Atlanta to Thomasville via Fitzgerald and Tifton on the former Tifton and Northeastern Railroad line.

The Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad was acquired by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1926. The Atlantic Coast Line operated the AB&A network as the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad (AB&C) until 1946, when they fully merged the AB&C into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad abandoned the Tifton and Northeastern Railroad in 1960.