Elizabeth and I arose and went down to the lobby we enjoyed the hotel's breakfast. After doing our usual morning E-mail, we then walked down and waited for the doors of the bus to be opened by the driver Roosevelt and chose the second row on the right for this exciting station-oriented trip around the area. There were 28 participants for this year's convention and each person had been given a 103-page binder which included details about each station, maps, schedules and articles on applicable former Georgia railways. We referred to this frequently throughout each day's journey.
2024 Railroad Station Historical Society conventionHosted by Don Wickersham and Ted Xakellis, this year's convention will be based in Gainesville, Georgia. We shall visit depots of the Atlanta and Florida, Central of Georgia, Georgia Railroad, Louisville and Nashville, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis, Seaboard Air Line, Southern and Tallulah Falls Railway. We shall trace the route of the famous General steam locomotive stolen by Yankee raiders during the Civil War. The towns to be visited include Kennesaw, Tallulah Falls, Social Circle, Toccoa, Athens and Madison. Tallulah Falls, Demorest and Rabun Gap were stops on the Tallulah Falls Railway, an engineering achievement.
Day 1 of the convention will cover mostly Louisville and Nashville, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis, and Southern depots. We shall visit Kennesaw, know as Big Shanty at the time of the Great Locomotive Chase. Day 2 will feature the Gainesville Midland, Seaboard Air Line, Southern and Tallulah Falls depots. On Day 3 we shall visit Southern, Georgia Railroad, and Atlanta and Florida structures. On Day 4 Georgia Midland, Central of Georgia, and Seaboard Air Line depots will be visited. The bus will leave the hotel each morning at 7:30 A.M. and return around 6 P.M.
Our Motor Coach TripOur first stop was at the Amtrak station in Gainesville.
Amtrak's Crescent arrived and departed Gainesville with PH42DC 192 and Siemens SC-44 329 bound for New Orleans.
Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3379, nee Conrail 6445 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1978.
Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3469, ex. First Union Rail 7210, exx. BNSF 7210 nee Burlington Northern 7210 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1980.
Norfolk Southern SD40-2 3321 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1982.
Gainesville Southern Railway station built in 1910 to replace an earlier depot damaged by a tornado in 1903 and was once used by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It is currently used by Norfolk Southern as office space.
We next went to the Gainesville Midland Railroad Depot a few blocks away.
Gainesville Midland Railroad Depot built in 1914 and is now the Arts Council Depot. Gainesville was named for General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, commander of Fort Stoddard in Alabama. He arrested Aaron Burr when he sought refuge in Georgia after the death of Alexander Hamilton. He defended Fort Erie in the War of 1812 and served in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars. The great stimulus to deveolpment after the Civil War was the construction of the Charlotte and Atlanta Air Line Railroad, which became the Southern Railway.
As everyone was photographing this station, the sky let loose and it poured. We hurried back to the bus and boarded, drying out on the way to Jasper, a station that Elizabeth and I visited two day ago. Throughout each day, area railroad and specific town history wss given by S. David Phraner.
Jasper Louisville and Nashville station built in 1920. The restored long white gabled combination wood depot contains offices. Jasper, the county seat of Pickens County, was incorporated as a town in 1857 and as a city a hundred years later. It was named for William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero.
We back-tracked to Tate.
Tate Louisville and Nashhville station with red gables built in 1916. Tate includes the main quarries of the Georgia Marble Company, founded by Samuel Tate in 1884, which were served by the Georgia Northwestern Railroad. The Tate post office was orginally called Marble Works and the area was later known as Harnageville, whose home was authorized for Georgia General Assembly to be the first meeting place for county courts for Cherokee County when the county was established. Elections for a full county government were held in 1932 and the court was held in Heritage House. In 1882, Cherokee County was divided into seven other counties and in 1880, the town was renamed Tate after Samuel Tate.
The Tate Depot served the small community until 1949 when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad discontinued passenger service on the "Hook and Eye" line. In the years following the building was used for storage and later as the maintenance-of-way office for the Georgia Northeastern Railroad. After they moved to a new location in Ballground, Georgia, the building sat vacant for many years and fell into disrepair. The depot was located very close to Highway 53 and blocked the view for motorists approaching the grade crossing. In 2015, a decision was made to move the depot from the northeast corner of the highway and railroad tracks across the road to a vacant lot on the southeast corner. The depot was also set back approximately 100 feet at a slight angle from the tracks. After the depot was moved, it was restored by the Marble Valley Friends group to serve as a community center. The depot has been nicely restored inside and out. It is fantastic that the history of the Tate Depot has been preserved for future generations to see and appreciate.
Former VIA Rail steam generator 15444, nee Canadian National 15444, built by Canadian Car and Foundry in 1956.
Georgia Northeastern GP38 9708, ex. Railcar Limited 9708, exx. Illinois Central 9708, exxx. Chicago Central and Pacific 2008, exxxx. Gateway Western 2046, exxxxx. Chicago, Missouri and Western 2046, exxxxxx. Conrail 7815, nee Penn Central 7815, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1969.
Patriot Rail GP38AC 3805, ex. Larry's Truck and Electric 3805, exx. Union Pacific 293, exxx. Union Pacific 1793, exxxx. Union Pacific 1993, exxxxx. Missouri-Kansas-Texas 336, exxxxxx. Illinois Central Gulf 9513, nee Illinois Central 9513, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1970. This crew had more spectators than they ever had of this light engine move which briefly blocked the main highway.
We were on the bus for a longer time as we made our way to Woodstock.
Louisville and Nashville Woodstock station built in 1912. This wooden combination depot housed the Freight Kitchen and Tap Restaurant for eleven years until it closed in March 2023. The line transported cotton, rope and other agricultral products, as well as passengers.
The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Woodstock in 1897. It derives its name from the 1826 novel by Sir Walter Scott.
Southern Railroad caboose X674 built by the railroad, year unknown.
Three plaques on the station.
The bus took us a short distance to Holly Springs.
Holly Springs Louisville and Nashville station built in 1914 is a wooden gabled combination depot with a pink roof, that has been restored. Holly Springs was incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly in 1906. According to tradition, it was named for a stand of holly tres near a spring at the original town site.
Our next stop on this first day was Adairsville.
Adairsville Louisville and Nashville combination station was built in 1891. Adairsville used to be a small Cherokee village, named after Chief Walter S. Adair, a Scottish settler who married a Cherokee woman in 1838. After the removal of the Cherokee, the village became part of Georgia and one of the town's developers was Willian Watts, who had a railroad business in town. He had brought the Western and Atlantic Railroad from Atlanta and deeded land to the railroad and surveyed business lots including hotels, mills and blacksmith shops. Watts' plan was successful and brought the town its nickname "Granary of the State".
Painting of the Great Locomotive Chase.
Great Locomotive Chase plaque.
Dedicated in the Memory of Bill and Pansy Penfield plaque.
From A Chekoree Village to a Railroad Town display board.
A Thriving Town display board.
The Creation of the Western and Atlantic Railroad display board.
CSX caboose Operation Redblock 16426, nee Lousville and Nashville 6426, builder and year unknown.
From here, the bus took us to lunch and the two of us choose Hardee's and afterwards, we went to Cartersville.
Western and Atlantic Cartersville {Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis} station built in 1902. This red brick gabled station serves as a welcome center which has had the older freight end removed. Cartersville was founded in 1832 on the site of the railroad underpass south of the point and was called Birmingham for the English coal and iron city, It was later moved in 1850 and incorporated as Cartersville in 1854, named for Colonel Farish Carter of Milledgeville, the owner of a large plantation. Cartersville was designated the seat of Barton County in 1867 following the destruction of Caseville by Sherman's March to the Sea.
The town's police chief saw 28 people descending upon the station and after learning the reason for our visit, opened the Court House and jail so here is a trio of pictures.
This map of the area was in the pavement as we walked around the perimeter of the station.
The bus next took us all to Kennesaw.
CSX ES44AC-H 3132 built by General Electric in 2013.
CSX ES44AH 952 built by General Electric in 2011.
CSX ES44AC 791 built by General Electric in 2007.
Big Shanty {Kennesaw} yellow wooden combination depot built in 1908 and added to in the early 1920's. I paid to go into Southern Museum of the Civil War and Locomotive History.
Splint Jellico Coal 0-4-0 3 built by Glover in 1926, damaged and reposessed by Glover because Splint-Jellico could not keep up payments and remained there, progressively deteriorating for more than 70 years. 3 was donated to the museum by the Glover family in 2001 along with most of the other historic material left at the Marietta site and has been nicely restored. A coal burner, 3 was built to a 40" gauge.
Western and Atlantic 5 foot gauage 4-4-0 3 "The General", built by Rogers Ketchum & Grosvenor in 1855. A wood burner, the "General" was the most famous of four locomotives involved in what has come to be known as the "Great Locomotive Chase".
On 12th April 1862, it was commandeered at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) by Union volunteers who had infiltrated Confederate territory in civilian clothing. Led by James J. Andrews, their goal was to take the train north towards Chattanooga and meet up with the Union's advancing army. Along the way, they would tear up track, sabotage switches, burn bridges and bring down telegraph lines. The train's conductor, William Allen Fuller, and two other men gave chase, first on foot and then by handcar. At Etowah, Fuller commandeered the "Yonah" and continued to Kingston. There, he switched to the "William R. Smith" but, two miles south of Adairsville, the tracks having been lifted by the raiders, Fuller was forced to revert to foot. Arriving at Adairsville, he then took command of the southbound "Texas" and resumed his pursuit.
With the "Catoosa" following, both locomotives travelling tender-first, the chase continued north to Tunnel Hill, GA. Finally, just north of Ringgold, GA, and only a few miles from Chattanooga, with the locomotive out of fuel, Andrews' men abandoned the "General" and scattered. All the raiders were subsequently caught, however, and tried. Eight of those captured were executed as spies, and the remainder imprisoned. Some escaped and made it to the north, and the remainder were eventually paroled in exchange for Confederate prisoners.
After the war, the "General" continued to operate on the Western & Atlantic. When the railroad began numbering engines, as it was the 39th acquired, the "General" was numbered 39. It was completely rebuilt in the 1870s and, in the mid-1880's, converted to standard 4' 8" gauge and leased to the Atlanta & Florida Railroad. It retired from service in 1891 and was stored on a siding in Vinings, Georgia, until restored for display at the 1899 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1901, it went on display in the Chattanooga Union Depot, although it was taken to the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse in Baltimore, Chicago's "Century of Progress" Exhibition in 1933, the 1939 New York World's Fair and the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948.
In 1959, the locomotive was restored to operating condition for the American Civil War Centennial and went on to appear at venues across the eastern US, including the 1964 New York World's Fair. A legal dispute then arose between the State of Georgia and the City of Chattanooga over custodianship, which was finally settled in 1970. The "General" then returned to Kennesaw where the museum site was being prepared for it.
Big Shanty is what Kennesaw used to be called until 1887. The name is derived from the Cherokee word Goh-nee-sah meaning cemetery of burial ground.
The Georgia Merci Car. In the winter of 1947-48, the United States began a relief effort to war-torn France and Italy. Citizens donated more than seven hundred box cars of goods, food and clothes to an "American Friendship Train". In gratitude, a group of French citizens organised a private effort to thank the people of the US for their assistance in the two world wars and for the relief aid. The result was the forty-nine box car "Merci Train". The train arrived in New York aboard the steamship Magellan on 3rd February 1949. One box car was for each of the states, and one was to be shared between the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. They were called "40 et 8" cars because the French military rated them to carry forty soldiers or eight horses.
Merci Car historic plaque.
The next station was Marietta.
Marietta Western and Atlantic {Nashville, Chattanooga and St Louis} station built in 1864. The red elegant brick combination depot, with additions, serves as the city's welcome center. It was burnt down by General William Tecumesh Sherman in the later years of the Civil War but was rebuilt in 1898. Marrietta is the county seat of Cobb County, selected as the hub for the new Western and Atlantic Railroad and business boomed.
Coulbourn Brothers Lumber narrow gauge 2-6-0 4 built by the Glover Machine Works 1917 in Marietta. In 1923, it was repossessed by the Glover Machine Works and returned to Marietta. Not much appears to be known about 4, other than that it was a coal burner and has 24" drivers and 8" x 4" cylinders. It is on display across the tracks from Marietta’s old passenger depot.
Glover Locomotive historical sign.
Following our itinerary took the conventioneers to Norcross.
Norcross Soutern station, a wooden combination depot built in 1906 and is the Crossing Steak House. Norcross was chartered as a town on October 26, 1870 and was named for Jonathan Norcross, a former Atlanta mayor and railroad official.
We then were taken to the closed [this day only] Southeastern Railway Museum so we had to shoot pictures through the fence.
Duluth Southern station was built in 1871 to serve the city by a predecessor of the Southern Railway, part of today’s Norfolk Southern Corporation. The railroad primarily served the cotton trade, which was cultivated on a reported 50,000 acres in the area. Since Forsyth and Milton counties had no rail service at the time, the addition of the passenger station at Duluth made the city a center for shipping and commercial activity.
Norfolk Southern D9-44CW 9854 built by General Electric in 1972 and ES44DC 7667 built by General Electric in 1996, came through while we were stopped.
The last location for Day 1 was Lawrenceville.
CSX ES44AC-H 3111 built by General Electric in 2013 and GP40-2 6107, ex. CSX 6107, nee Baltimore and Ohio 4208, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1975.
Lawrenceville Seaboard Air Line station. Tracks through the Gwinnett County seat were laid in the late 1880's when the Lawrenceville Branch Railroad opened. The railroad was chartered in 1877 and finished in December 1881. In 1885, the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad sold the branch to the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which later became Southern Railway. Perhaps the biggest change in Lawrenceville’s railroad history came in the 1890's, when the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway was built.
The railroad was founded in December 1886 and planned on building a line between Atlanta and Monroe, North Carolina. Construction began the next year and would take five years to finish. However, before its completion, the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway was leased to the Seaboard and Roanoke and the Raleigh and Gaston railroads. In 1901, the railroad merged with the Seaboard Air Line. Six years after the line was completed, the Loganville and Lawrenceville Railroad opened on December 1, 1898. The line, which was abandoned in 1932, connected with the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway in Lawrenceville.
The bus returned us to the Fairfield Inn in Gainesville and the two of us had dinner with Doug Scott at Red Lobster, during which good conversations were had. We returned to the hotel for the night.
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