Railfanning in Cartersville, Ga.

Todd DeFeo/Railfanning.org

The Cartersville, Ga., train depot as it appeared on Dec. 30, 2002.

Todd DeFeo/Railfanning.org

A CSX intermodal freight heads south towards Atlanta on Super Bowl Sunday 2002. More than 80 freight trains pass through Cartersville on a daily basis.

Railfanning in Cartersville, Ga.

By Todd DeFeo

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – Trains first reached this north Georgia city in 1845 with the completion of the Western & Atlantic Railroad.

Cartersville as a town was incorporated in 1850 and as a city in 1872. The city’s train depot, located in the middle of the square, was completed in 1854, after outgrowing a boxcar that had previously served as the station.

The depot was an important site during the Civil War. In 1864, Confederate troops fortified the depot by knocking out bricks to make gun ports. During the war, both the floor and the roof were burned.

According to “History of the 93rd Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry: From Organization To Muster Out – Statistics,” compiled by Sgt. Aaron Dunbar: “The Western & Atlantic Railroad, in its general course from Cartersville to Marietta, runs nearly southeast. From a point a little more than a mile west of Allatoona, it runs in a course east-northeast, then makes a curve to the right, resembling the side of a horseshoe, about three-quarters of a mile long, and then describes a greater curve, equal to the half of a circle about a mile and three-quarters in diameter, the course of which is southwest, south, southeast and east, to a point about two miles south and a little east of Allatoona. These two curves make a figure resembling the letter S with both curves reversed, the lower curve being a little more than double the size of the upper one, and the upper one being somewhat elongated.”

Additions were made to the depot in 1902, but much of the building was razed in 1972. The remaining portion serves as the home to the Cartersville Welcome Center and the Downtown Development Authority.

The Western & Atlantic, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis and the Louisville & Nashville railroads have served Cartersville. The main line today is operated by CSX and as many as 60 trains pass through the city daily.