The Georges Creek Railway is a shortline railroad in Western Maryland that performs contract switching and owns a 14-mile line between Westernport and Carlos. The railroad is headquartered at 119 Pratt St. in Luke in the former Luke Post Office. Gerald Altizer and Pat Stakem are the primary partners in the company. Operating since December 2007 on CSX Transportation and plant trackage, the firm does contract switching services for the Verso Paper Mill in Luke. An article in the Baltimore Business Journal dated April 30, 2019, announced the closing of the paper mill in Luke by June 30, which will affect the employment of the GCK's Alco T-6. Dockets numbered 1293X and 1294X and filed with the Surface Transportation Board on February 3, 2020, state, "Eighteen Thirty Group, LLC and Georges Creek Railway file this Verified Notice of Exemption pursuant to the class exemption at 49 C.F.R. § 1152.50 for Eighteen Thirty to abandon and GCR to discontinue service over an approximately 7.54-mile rail line between milepost BAI 26.00 in Moscow, MD and milepost BAI 18.46 in Shaft, MD, all in Allegany County, MD. No local rail traffic has moved over the Line during the past two years. Any overhead traffic on the Line can be and has been rerouted."
The acquisition of track for the Georges Creek Railway began 2005, the year CSX had begun the process of abandoning their Georges Creek Subdivision due to two washouts along the right of way and few customers. In December 2005, the deed for the northern 8.54 miles of track from Morrison, Maryland to Carlos, Maryland was transferred to WMS, LLC which would go bankrupt a year later due to investor difficulties. The following year, the Eighteen Thirty Group, LLC and Georges Creek Railway, LLC, filed to acquire and operate the line as Class III common carriers, having purchased the line out of bankruptcy court. On May 15, 2015, Eighteen Thirty Group with the Georges Creek Railway, LLC filed a notice of intent to acquire 5.4 miles of rail line from CSX: 4.8 miles of the Georges Creek Subdivision between Barton and Westernport, and 0.6 miles of the Thomas Subdivision. The GCK entered an agreement with Eighteen Thirty Group to operate on these lines. This acquisition brought the entirety of the former Georges Creek Subdivision under the control of GCK. As of March 2016, several right of way improvement projects have been undertaken, but the washouts have not been repaired, keeping the line north of the village of Moscow inoperable.
Equipment roster
The Georges Creek Railway currently owns 11 diesel engines, two ex-MPA/WM hoppers, and one bay window caboose. The caboose, numbered 67 and in derelict condition, wears the reporting marks VGNX of the Eastern Virginia Railroad Historical Society. Additionally, there is an unmarked box car painted in rusty metal primer. With the exception of GCK 101 at the nearby closed paper mill in Luke, all of the line's equipment in the local area is stored next to a closed truck maintenance shop in Barton, Maryland. The GCK's engine roster is enumerated in the table below. A site visit on July 8, 2020 revealed that four locomotives, formerly stored in Westernport, had been moved to Barton about a year earlier to reduce vandalism and theft. All four are clustered with the other rolling stockon site. Restoration work on No. 39 has ceased, and No. 154 has reportedly been sold, but has not yet left the property. Heavy brush growth all along the line is indicative of the complete lack of rail activity. GCK 101, the lone locomotive assigned to work as the plant switcher in the closed paper mill in nearby Luke, is still on mill property. Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited, which purchased the recycled-content bleached kraft pulp mill in Fairmont, West Virginia, is reportedly interested in buying the Luke plant as well in 2021. This could lead to No. 101 going back into service.
