When were the local passenger trains taken out of service on the Chattanooga to Griffin line. And also, was there ever any attempt at running something other than the local trains, such as sleeper service to points south like Florida or southern Alabama. And can someone tell me, what was the usual locomotive/coach consist for these trains. And last of all can someone tell me were I could find photos of the CofG in Chattooga county Ga.(Summerville, Trion, Berryton and Lyerly). Many thanks Warren

-- Warren D. Stephens (wdstephens@prodigy.net), July 12, 1999

Answers

Warren and all. A sure way of putting your foot in your mouth is by saying "It never happened" Jack Wyatt showed me a photo the other day of Rome. In the photo you can clearly see the "proposed" Cental depot in Rome. Local sources and another photo I have seen only shows a platform for passengers. Several local people have told me the Cental used the ex-NC&StL station for passenger traffic, and the photo I had looked at seemed to support this. The Central's depot must have had a very short life, possibly 10 years. Todd

-- Todd Horton (Centga@aol.com), July 20, 1999.

Warren, passenger service ended on this line in 1950. This was one of the last lines to be dieselized, so all passenger power would have been steam. The first diesels appearedon this line in 1951, GP-7's #106 & #107. What I found interesting was that as late as 1946 the Central was considering a new depot for Rome. When Allen Tuten and I went to the Ga. History Center in Savannah I found a drawing for a proposed station in Rome. I've wondered what caused things to change so fast between 1946 and 1950 when they ended the service. The automobile cometh, I guess. Todd

-- Todd Horton (Centga@aol.com), July 12, 1999.