MORROW, Georgia — Railfanning.org Publisher and Editor Todd DeFeo discussed “Oddities on the (Georgia) Rails” during a Dec. 13 presentation at the Georgia Archives, highlighting some of the more unusual and intriguing events of Georgia railroad history.
DeFeo opened with an anecdote about an alligator found in Atlanta’s Union Depot in 1901. The discovery underscored the depot’s poor conditions, which had earned it the nickname “Dismal Swamp.”
The presentation then recounted an incident on April 30, 1900, involving a runaway train car on the Gainesville, Jefferson & Southern Railroad. DeFeo also detailed the escape of three convicts from the Cole City Convict Camp in 1893. The men used a runaway caboose to flee but were recaptured shortly after their escape.
“I started thinking back as I pulled this presentation and other presentations I pulled together as well that we misremember the glory days of railroads in some ways,” DeFeo said. “Yes, it was hugely impactful. It absolutely changed communities up and down the lines. It changed how we got goods to market. It changed how we were able to go from point A to point B.
“But I also started thinking about that Billy Joel lyric, ’cause the good old days weren’t always good,’ and I think you could apply that to railroads,” DeFeo added. “There were certainly some great days. There were some terrible days on railroads. I did a lot of presentations on death on the rails and people who were killed in various accidents and mishaps, and it was incredible the number of ways people could meet their demise on a railroad. …What I hope these anecdotes today have shown [is that] there was also some weird things that happened on railroads over the years.”
