Odds and Ends
Rail Excursion and Tourist Lines
• Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, Blue Ridge. Passengers take a 26-mile round trip along the scenic Toccoa River between Blue Ridge and McCaysville. The route follows an old Louisville & Nashville line. (241 Depot Street in Blue Ridge). Here's a description of a trip on the train by railfan Randy Golden.• SAM Shortline, Cordele. The popular SAM Shortline excursion railroad runs from I-75 at Cordele to Plains.
• Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, Chattanooga. TVRR operates special excursions over Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway lines in northwest Georgia.
• Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, Stone Mountain. Vintage FP-7 diesels circle the base of the 800-foot granite monolith over a five-mile route built in 1962. Stone Mountain Park is located 16 miles east of Atlanta on U.S. Highway 78 and is open year-round, 6am to midnight.
Railroad Museums
• Southeastern Railway Museum, Duluth. Extensive collection of railroad equipment on display. SRM website.
• Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, Kennesaw. Houses the famed Civil War locomotive General as well as locomotives built by the Glover Machine Works of nearby Marietta.
• Roundhouse Railroad Museum (Central of Georgia Shops), Savannah. This National Historic Landmark site is now the State Museum of Railroad History.
• Thronateeska Heritage Center, Albany. At Albany Union Station. Exhibits include Georgia Northern No. 107 steam locomotive, a variety of rail cars, and a model railroad.
• Tallulah Falls Railroad Museum, Rabun Gap. Exhibits tell the story of the Tallulah Falls Railway which once ran through Rabun Gap. Also, an operating narrow gauge train built by students of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School.
• Roosevelt Railroad Museum, Griffin. A railroad mtorcar pulls visitors over Southern Railway tracks traveled many times by FDR on his way to and from Warm Springs. Also steam engines and other exhibits.
See also Steam Locomotives on Display.
Rail-Trails
• Silver Comet Trail. Named for Seaboard's New York-Atlanta-Birmingham passenger train, a part of the railroad's famous "Silver Fleet." The 61-mile trail winds through much of Cobb, Paulding, & Polk counties on an abandoned Seaboard Air Line Railway corridor. At the state line it continues as Alabama's Chief Ladiga Trail.
• McQueen's Island Trail. A 6-mile trail on Central of Georgia's old Savannah-Tybee line.
• Moultrie Trail, Moultrie. Also known as Tom White Linear Park, this 7.5-mile trail was built on a route that once carried trains of the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic.
• Columbus Fall Line Trace. Follows an 11-mile section of the former Southern Railway line that once ran from Columbus to McDonough. The 12-foot wide asphalt trail extends from the city's 14th Street Bridge to Columbus State University and on to Psalmond Road and Midland along a course generally parallel to Warm Springs Road and US 27. The line began as the Georgia Midland & Gulf Railroad in 1886-87.
• Tallulah Falls Rail-Trail. Also known as the Shortline Trail, this paved route follows 1.7 miles of the former Tallulah Falls Railway in Rabun County. The trail begins on the north shore of Tallulah Falls Lake and proceeds north from there.
• Georgia Coast Rail-Trail. The middle section of the former Seaboard Air Line Railway between Savannah and Florida may someday become a 68-mile rail-trail. A 3.5-mile section at White Oak in Camden County and a short section to the south in Woodbine have been completed. See Camden County's website for more information.
• Douglas Rail-Trail. A 3-mile trail follows the route of the Georgia & Florida Railroad through town, passing beside the 1923 G&F depot.
• S&S Greenway. A planned 7-mile bike and pedestrian trail from Statesboro to Brooklet on the bed of the long-abandoned Savannah & Statesboro Railway. In 2006, Georgia DOT provided $300,000 in Transportation Enhancement funds for the trail.
• Atlanta BeltLine Trails. An ambitious project to built a system of trails (jointly with parallel light rail transit or streetcars) around the periphery of downtown Atlanta, primarily on abandoned railroad beds.
The Eastside Trail, now under construction, will run 2.5 miles from DeKalb Avenue north to Piedmont Park on a portion of the original Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway route into downtown Atlanta.
A trail on the southeast side of town would follow the route of the 5.5 mile Atlanta Belt Line, constructed in 1900. These tracks, leased by the Atlanta & West Point not long after construction, ran from the A&WP main line at Oakland Junction to Hulsey Yard on the Georgia Railroad.
On the west side of town a trail is planned for much of the former 7-mile Louisville & Nashville belt line that once extended from the A&WP main line north to the L&N main line at Tilford Yard.
In the northwest, a short section of the former Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast may be included. This link begins on the east side of Maddox Park and heads north towards the old Bellwood Yard of the AB&C at Jefferson Street.
The north side has few abandoned rails so other potential links are being explored.
Tunnels
Georgia doesn't have as many railroad tunnels as some states, but it does have one of the oldest (1849-50), another that continues in use on a busy rail line, as well as a tunnel that now has a bike trail through it. Continue on to the tunnels page.
Bridges, Trestles, and Viaducts
Since the 1830s many thousands of railroad bridges, trestles, and viaducts have been built to carry trains over Georgia's streams. Continue on to the bridges pages.
Railroad Office Buildings
Several interesting old buildings around Georgia once housed railroad company offices. Here's a sampling.
On April 12, 1862, a band of raiders under the command of James J. Andrews stole the Western & Atlantic Railroad locomotive "General" at Big Shanty, now Kennesaw, Georgia. Andrews and his men intended to race north to safety while burning railroad bridges along the way. They didn't make it.
• The General, Kennesaw. The General has been preserved and is on display at the town where Andrews stole it. Website.
• The Texas, Atlanta. The Texas, one of the locomotives that chased the General, also remains in existence. It can be seen at the Cyclorama in Atlanta's Grant Park. Website.
• The end of the chase, Ringgold. Two miles north of Ringgold a monument marks the spot where the chase ended.
• The details. Several websites tell the story of Andrews Raid, so there's no need to repeat it here. In particular, check out andrewsraid.com and ngeorgia.com. For a recent book about the event, see Russell S. Bonds' Stealing the General; The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2007).
Street Railways
• Americus Electric Car No. 2, Americus. The first trolley in town became a kitchen for local prisoners, then a lake cottage.
• "Toonerville Trolley" St. Marys. This curious little vehicle traveled on the St. Marys Railroad before being incorporated into a house.
• Inman Park Trolley Barn, Atlanta. Victorian-era maintenance building for Atlanta's first streetcar line.
Train-Watching Sites
• Folkston Funnel Train-Watching Platform, Folkston. Up to sixty trains a day come through the southeast Georgia town of Folkston.
• Manchester Train-Watching Platform, Manchester. Located on an important CSX rail junction, Manchester has a platform for viewing the rail action.
• Millen Train-Watching Platform, Millen. Norfolk Southern trains roll through this east central Georgia town at the junction of lines to Macon, Savannah, and Augusta.
• Dalton area train-watching. Info on rail action in Whitfield County, from Dalton/Whitfield County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
• Cartersville train-watching. Friendship Plaza in downtown Cartersville is a fine place to see a few of the 50 trains that pass through here each day. (Info from Cartersville/Bartow County Convention and Visitors Bureau.)
Other
• Allatoona Pass, Cartersville area. Dug in the 1840s for the Western & Atlantic Railroad, it was the scene of a bloody Civil War battle.
• Summerville turntable, Summerville. In Summerville's downtown Dowdy Park, excursion trains of the Tennessee Valley Railroad are using a newly installed turntable. Built around 1916, the turntable was moved from Alabama to Summerville with the assistance of federal Transportation Enhancement funds in 2002-2003. (At the other end of the state, Savannah's Roundhouse Railroad Museum also maintains an operating turntable.)
• Samuel Spencer monument, Atlanta. Memorial to the first president of the Southern Railway, sculpted by Daniel Chester French in 1909.
• William Wadley monument, Macon. Statue honoring the president of the Central of Georgia, who transformed a war-ravaged railroad into one of the state's leading enterprises.
• General Griffin monument, Griffin. Statue of Lewis Lawrence Griffin, first president of the early Monroe Railroad.
• Zero Milepost. This stone milepost marks the southern end of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and the beginning of Atlanta.
• Coaling towers. Massive reminders of the days of steam.
• Water towers. Another rare relict of steam-powered travel.
• Interlocking towers. Like coal and water towers, only a few are still standing.
Railroad Nicknames
• Nicknames of Georgia Railroads, including some that are less than complimentary.
Georgia's Railroad History & Heritage. Copyright, Steve Storey.
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