Sad to say, but today as I crossed the former CG mainline at East 19th Street in Rome, I noticed something didn't look right. A closer look showed that rail had been removed. I looked to the right back towards old K Tower, and there was nothing but roadbed, to my left towards Lindale, a John Deere track-hoe was hard at work removing rail and ties. This was a strange thing to see as I had passed over here less than a week ago and there was still track in. I managed to talk to the foreman on the job who informed me that they had been here since about Wednesday, and really got started working Thursday. The removal gang seemed to be a good group of guys, and did not mind at all that I videoed the removal of this trackage. I personally wish that I could tell all of you it was video of a train, however I guess it has been atleast 6 years since any rail traffic has been over this line. The last customer, Simpson Grocery quit receiving shipments by rail a long time back, which leaves only one current customer using a small portion of the old CG track, right off of the NS Atlanta-Chattannoga Mainline on the East side which is James Grain. For those of you not familiar with the area, the track being removed is to the East of the Old K Tower, where Central of Georgia and Southern crossed each other. Progress of the crew today was only as far as where US 27 crosses over by Bekaert Steel. From there on back towards Lindale the track is still in until crews start back to work. The word I have is that they hope to have it all dismantled by Thursday, and ever how long it takes to load everything up. Only time will tell, I will try my best to keep you all informed of what goes on. All I can say is watch other lines close, NS is definately on a ripping spree.

Jonathan Blair Rome, GA

-- Jonathan L. Blair (NSJLBlair1981@aol.com), January 13, 2001

Answers

Just to let you all know, the line is now completely torn up. All that is left is sorting, loading and clean up. Contractor says about 2 more weeks and they will be gone. All we have left now is roadbed to remember part of this line by.

Jonathan Blair Rome, GA

-- Jonathan L. Blair (NSJLBlair1981@aol.com), January 30, 2001.

Here is an update to my earlier post. As of today, January 18, 2000, it seems as though they have only progressed as far as Simpson Grocery (AKA Budweiser). As some of you may know, a portion of the track had been removed there previously for a parking lot. Looking back towards Rome from there, the rail has been removed, although it did appear that they still have ties to go back and pick up. One of their track-hoes was at Simpson Grocery, the other around East 20 and East 19th Street. There was not a sign of anyone at work, I guess the rain has slowed them down.

Jonathan Blair Rome, GA

-- Jonathan L. Blair (NSJLBlair1981@aol.com), January 18, 2001.