The company was initially a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways and began operations in 1987 following the purchase of the Enterprise Subdivision branch line of CSX Transportation.

[1] In April 2011, the Wiregrass Central was named as one of the three railroads being acquired by RailAmerica from Gulf and Ohio for $12.7 million following employee votes to unionize.

[8] On July 10, 1992, an additional segment running approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from Clintonville to Enterprise was abandoned by the Wiregrass Central, prompted by the closure of a woodyard at the end of the line.

The following year, the large, rapidly expanding Genesse & Wyoming group acquired RailAmerica, placing the Wiregrass Central under new corporate ownership.

Employee timetables of the era scheduled departure of the local in the early morning from Dothan, exiting the mainline at Waterford - a wye junction near Newton - beginning its journey on the designated Elba subdivision of the Waycross division.

CSX maintained the tradition of predecessor railroads by launching a daily local train from Dothan to work the branch then return the same day.

With the relinquishment of the line from CSX control, interchange service was instead made at Waterford, with the local road freight picking up or setting out cars for the shortline to retrieve.

Corn and soybean products are blended at the mills to produce animal feed, and this combined rail traffic provides the bulk of the volume the Wiregrass Central moves on an annual basis.

Other traffic sources include temporary railcar storage and occasional transloading operations near the physical end of the property.

Originally, the Wiregrass Central maintained a bright red paint scheme with large white identifying numbers on the long hoods of their units.

As the parent G&O group rapidly expanded its locomotive fleet in the early to mid 1990s, it became uneconomical to repaint all new additions red, thus a flat black scheme was instead created while maintaining the large white long hood numbers.

The Genesee & Wyoming acquisition of the short line included the fleet of covered hoppers, which converted the cars to carry the namesake reporting marks of WGCR.