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John F. Reynolds
Conductor
Biography
John F. Reynolds (unknown-August 20, 1891) was one of the first Western & Atlantic Railroad conductors, beginning service on September 11, 1848. He was the conductor of the first Western & Atlantic train to operate in Dalton, Georgia, in the 1840s.
In 1855, he was the conductor of the first train to cross the new bridge over the Etowah River. By July 1888, he was the railroad agent in Dalton, where he died on August 20, 1891.
Robert Virgil Rhodes
Engineer
Biography
Robert Virgil Rhodes was killed in a head-on collision near Dalton, Georgia.
Eugene Riley
Engineer
Biography
Eugene Riley was the engineer on the No. 2 express train on July 28, 1869, when it crashed at Budds Creek near Clarksville, Tennessee.
In the locomotive, steam escaping from the damaged boiler claimed the lives of Riley and the fireman.
Riley, a Bowling Green resident, left behind a wife and a child. The engineer “was regarded as one of the most discreet engineers on the road he served and stood high in the estimation of all who knew him.”
He “was scrupulously circumspect with his locomotive, always complying with the rules by which engine-drivers are governed, especially as to slow running over bridges and trestles.”