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| Riding
the iron road: Michael Hitt has rediscovered the long- forgotten path of the Roswell Railroad, which operated from 1881 to 1921. Take a ride on the Roswell Railroad with history sleuth Michael Hitt, who has discovered the 9.8-mile route of the city's rail line through Chamblee and Dunwoody to Roswell's front door at the Chattahoochee River. The train operated from 1881 to 1921. Little remains of the original line, which has been paved over and obliterated by development. Modern-day highways, shopping centers, churches and motels stand on the track beds that the Roswell Railroad's locomotive, "Buck," thundered along for four decades ferrying passengers and freight. Two sections of the original rail were unearthed during road construction last month in Dunwoody, and one will be on display at Bulloch Hall along with a miniature model of the train, station and people on hand the day in 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt visited his mother's girlhood home in Roswell. He arrived on the Roswell Railroad. Hitt has written a book with detailed maps about the railroad's history and route. Traces of the original railroad bed still remain as it leads into the heart of Roswell. Town founders had hoped for a line into the city to ship cotton and wool manufactured at the mills on Vickery Creek to market and, during the Civil War, to speed up shipments for Confederate uniforms. A railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee proved too expensive and the train stopped short of the city limits, just south of the river, according to Hitt's recently published book, "History of the Roswell Railroad." Enbankments built to support the planned bridge still exist along Vickery Creek and parts of the rail bed that pushed into Roswell to a location near Georgia 9 and Oxbo Road that had been set aside for a train depot. Though it never crossed the river, mill officials were pleased that the train had reached Roswell's front door after 28 years of discussions and negotiations. The minutes of the Roswell Manufacturing Co. from Oct. 26, 1881, said the newly opened rail line "will be of advantage of this company as it must add much to the promptness with which the business can be transacted and greatly decrease the expense of transportation. Formerly this department required five wagons and ten mules to do the work which is now done easily by one wagon and two mules." Illustrator Chuck Brown has drawn detailed maps showing the path of the old railroad. It began in Chamblee about a half-mile south of the site of Oglethorpe University on Peachtree Road. (Chamblee originally was known as Roswell Junction.) Its path crossed Little Nancy's Creek, ran through the present site of Chamblee First Methodist Church and continued northward through the Ramada Inn property at Chamblee-Dunwoody and Interstate 285, proceeded along a path now paved as Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, then Roberts Drive and Northridge Road before crossing Georgia 400. It traveled northward along the east side of Dunwoody Place before reaching the Roswell Depot located at what is now the North River shopping center on Georgia 9 on a bluff overlooking the river. In Chamblee, the Roswell Railroad tied in with the main trunk line, the Atlanta Charlotte Air-Line Railway. A 2.7-mile spur line called the Bull Sluice Railroad was added in 1902 just north of the Dunwoody Station leading to Morgan Falls to ferry materials for the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would provide electric power to Atlanta downstream. An engine nicknamed "Dinkey" served that line. Both lines were later bought and operated by Southern Railway Co., which was forced to shut down the Roswell line after years of red ink and the growing popularity of the automobile. Old-timers remember "Buck," the engine that pulled the combination passenger and baggage car, two boxcars and four flatcars twice daily from Chamblee to Roswell. With no room to turn around at the Roswell terminus, engineer Ike Roberts ran the train backward on its return trip. Hitt recounts in his book girlhood remembrances of Dunwoody native Avie Donaldson Smith. "We also had exciting times like . . . when we would all get on top of one of "Old Buck's" boxcars and move a lever for a free ride down the railroad track." Today railroad and history buffs can follow the line and see one of three railroad employee houses that stood near the tracks at old Dunwoody Station near the intersection of Chamblee-Dunwoody and Mount Vernon roads. Engineer Roberts's house still stands on Roberts Drive, south of the Chattahoochee. The Roswell Depot burned in the mid-1950s. Map: Tracks from the past The Roswell Railroad operated from 1881 to 1921 on 9.8 miles of track carrying passengers and freight through Chamblee, Dunwoody and the Morgan Falls area to the Chattahoochee River just outside the Roswell city limits. Color photo: Historian Michael Hitt examines a model of the old Roswell train station. / Erik S. Lesser / Staff |