In July 1886, the Atlanta and Florida Railway was chartered as the Atlanta and Hawkinsville Railroad to connect Atlanta, Georgia and Hawkinsville, Georgia. The Atlanta and Florida Railroad name was instituted in 1887 and the railroad began operation in November 1888, running 105 miles from Atlanta to Fort Valley, Georgia

Fort Valley, Georgia

Fort Valley is a city in and the county seat of Peach County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 9,815.Fort Valley is the corporate headquarters of the Blue Bird Corporation, a large manufacturer of buses...

. The company was reorganized as the Atlanta and Florida Railway in 1893, and the property was sold to the Southern Railway

Southern Railway (US)

The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...

in 1895.