I'm sad to report that the morning after the meeting in Columbus, George Dorsey and I were making a quick tour of "all things railroad" in my adopted hometown of Athens and we noticed that another tiny bit of former CofGa track had disappeared. This was about a two block stretch of Athens' slim remaining stock of street trackage that ran down one edge of Foundry street in front of, but not adjoining several run down brick industrial buildings that are populated by artists now. I would guess that this spur would have actual been docked along whatever was where a block-long vacant lot is now. (For those at all familiar with Athens, Foundry Street cotinues along the back of the Classic Center.) The track ran northwest and curved into the weeds at the end of Foundry then retied into the line, now still seeing occasional NS coal traffic to the University just to the south. They have been doing some major maintenance/utility work way at the other end of Foundry for a few weeks now, but I was shocked to come around the corner and see a fresh excavation and dirt turned right up the length of where the track used to be, and the excavator still parked there at the scene of the crime! No sign of the track itself or any of the related materials.... So goes another glimpse at the age when railroads were king and the shine on a pair of tracks was the gleam of prosperity for not only the small towns but the nation... Well,I'm off to go watch one of my (non CofGa, sadly) steam era tapes.

Follow the absurd link below to a yahoo map of downtown Athens. The track running east-west is the VERY active CSX (SAL) mainline. The track that meanders from upper left corner to middle of the bottom edge is the last bit of CofGa before the Southern continued north to Cornelia. The Georgia (track still down but completely inactive) is coming in at the lower right corner. You can zoom in once to see Foundry street centered (but no street trackage shown, although the former CofGa is shown immediately to the East.)

http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&addr=&city=Athens&state=GA&csz=Athens,+GA&slt=33.961143&sln=-83.378014&mlt=33.961683&mln=-83.372802&name=&zip=&country=us&BFKey=&BFCat=&BFClient=&mag=10&desc=&cs=8&newmag=9&poititle=&poi=&ds=g

-- Ed Kelly (ed@brainrock.com), May 12, 2002

Answers

That missing track used to dead end into the terminus of the old Athens Terminal Company at East Broad Street and Foundry Street. I really liked that building...until is was torn down in the 70s, you could still read the markings rather clearly for Athens Terminal company and a really nice painted advertisement for Champagne Velvet Beer. Athens had several pieces of industrial and street running track, but that piece with the curve along Foundry Street was my favorite. I often walked it as a child and carefully negotiated the trestles to the mainline of the SAL and other interchange points.

-- David L. Hancock (davidlhancock@aol.com), October 16, 2002.