It was about 3:30 p.m. on July 6, 1862, ostensibly a typical Sunday during the early years of the Civil War, when two trains collided near Ringgold, Georgia, on the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
It was 7 a.m. on Dec. 1, 1849, and the western portion of the Western & Atlantic Railroad was open for business, even if the tunnel at Tunnel Hill was more than five months away from completion.
The Western & Atlantic Railroad operated some of the earliest locomotives in Georgia and the Southeast. The road, built and owned by the state of Georgia, acquired 10 locomotives during the 1840s.
Even though the Louisville & Nashville Railroad controlled the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, which in turn leased the Western & Atlantic Railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee, the L&N wanted its own line into Atlanta.
The North Georgia hamlet of Tunnel Hill is known for its namesake railroad tunnel that opened to traffic in 1850. But since that time, it has been the scene of some railroad calamities, mishaps and newsworthy happenings. Here are a few that made headlines over the years.
The southbound Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway train from Nashville, Tenn., pulled into Vinings on the evening of January 16, 1914. What happened next is remarkable.
