Talk:Fitzgerald Subdivision

Merger proposal

Formal request has been received to merge Fitzgerald Subdivision and Waycross Air Line Railroad in either direction; dated: November 8, 2021. Proposer's rationale: All evidence seems to point out that the Fitzgerald Subdivision includes at least part of the former Waycross Air Line Railroad. The direction in which article should be merged into the other should be discussed. Pinging proposer @DanTD: Discuss here. Richard3120 (talk) 18:46, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Has anyone else been paying attention to this proposal? ---------User:DanTD (talk) 05:03, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

UPDATE; JANUARY 3, 2022: It would seem that the only segment of the Fitzgerald Subdivision that was part of the Waycross Air Line included the segment between Waycross and Fitzgerald, Georgia. That means that WAL should be merged into a history chapter in this article, and probably some other railroad(s) should be merged into the portion beyond Fitzgerald. ---------User:DanTD (talk) 19:09, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

• I am strongly opposed to merging WAL into an article on a railroad line. A railroad company having conducted independent operations is a sufficient claim to notability in most cases. If anything, Fitzgerald Subdivision should be merged into WAL, or a better target if anyone can identify one. Honestly, I don't think we should have standalone articles on railroad subdivisions in most cases, there's quite little that can be said about them (as shown by the fairly garbage sourcing presently here). A railroad that operated for more than a decade has a far greater claim to notability than a single CSX subdivision. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 12:23, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
  • Okay, that's understandable. The Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad is a clear example of this, considering the Plant City Subdivision redirects there. On the other hand, there are articles on railroad subdivisions that contain multiple railroad histories. -------User:DanTD (talk) 14:40, 8 February 2022 (UTC)
    • Sorry for the late reply, I should have watchlisted this article. The way I would do this is to merge Fitzgerald Subdivision into Waycross Air Line Railroad. In general, that is how I have handled covering the modern history of rail lines, by including that information in the article on the original company (one example I did is the Nashua and Lowell Railroad - the company has long ceased to exist, but its tracks are in service with Pan Am Railways, and that history is included within the Nashua and Lowell Article, rather than a separate article for the line itself). Sometimes an article for the track itself can be justified, one example is the New Haven–Springfield Line, but for a freight-only subdivision, that's often not justifiable as not enough sources exist.
      The present state of the Fitzgerald Subdivision article is very poor, and there's simply not much which can be said about it, especially information sourced to secondary sources which Wikipedia prefers. In my view, it makes more sense to incorporate a bit of information from the Fitzgerald Subdivision (not that there's much here anyhow) into the later history of the Waycross Air Line Railroad. I usually edit railroad related articles in Southern New England, but give me until this weekend and I can expand the Waycross Air Line Railroad article, I have access to newspapers.com. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 03:36, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Okay, I have made some improvements to Waycross Air Line Railroad now. I think it's best to merge or even just redirect this article there, but I'm open to others' thoughts. I will post at WT:TRAINS and see if anyone else wishes to comment. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:48, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

If there are no objections, I will redirect this article to Waycross Air Line Railroad on Monday the 21st. The route template here might be useful, but it would need to be modified to reflect the historic Waycross Air Line Railroad rather than the Fitzgerald Subdivision. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:51, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

Can we also restore the map of the Fitzgerald Subdivision to the current infobox? ---------User:DanTD (talk) 09:04, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Done, although it does not necessarily fully coincide with the Waycross Air Line Railroad and its successors. Better than having no map, though. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:31, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. About that map though, if I'm not mistaken, the " Abandoned railroad route to Brunswick" was the Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad. ---------User:DanTD (talk) 01:34, 28 February 2022 (UTC)