There are several places along I-75 in northwest Georgia to interest the train-watcher. In the stretch between Chattanooga and Atlanta there are places to find both Norfolk Southern and CSX. Each railroad has its own route between the two cities. NS has an indirect path that crosses I-75 once while CSX closely parallels the interstate and crosses it five times.
The line used by CSX was built by the state of Georgia. Desperate to open the Cherokee Nation's land in northwest Georgia, the legislature chartered the Western and Atlantic Railroad in 1836. Seen today as a wise action to link Georgia's heart to rail and water routes to the north and west, it was really just a bunch of crooked elected officials trying to get rich. Construction started in 1837 at a lonely junction of two other railroads called Terminus, better know today as Atlanta, and was completed in 1851. During the Civil War this was Dixie's main rail supply line and it was on this line that the Great Locomotive Chase occurred. The chase, still famous today, started north of Atlanta in Kennesaw (then called Big Shanty) and ended south of Chattanooga near Ringgold. Historical markers where the chase started and stopped. The line is still owned by the state and is still called the W&A. There is one tunnel on the route.
At Cartersville a CSX route from Knoxville (Tennessee) dumps its traffic onto the already busy W&A line. Train frequency from Cartersville to Atlanta exceeds 50 a day by some counts.
Below Kennesaw at a spot called Elizabeth is a branch line. This is the old L&N "Hook & Eye". This line is owned by the state of Georgia and CSX and is leased to the Georgia Northeastern Railroad. GNRR moves about 10,000 carloads a year on 55 miles of track. In 1998 about 15 miles of out-of-service track was re-opened and trains are now able to traverse the entire Hook & Eye route. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad carries tourists on the northern part of the line, traversing 13 miles between Blue Ridge and McCaysville.
The NS line has a colorful history. Unlike the single-minded "here-to there" approach of the W&A, what is now one NS line was once several railroads. Most were started by southern capitalists before the Civil War. War stopped construction and afterwards many railroads were finished by carpetbaggers financed by northern capital. Competition was fierce, bankruptcies and reorganizations common. The fact that the line goes to Rome is no mistake; Rome was a major cotton town in the 1870s and many companies wanted to connect to it.
Tracing these railroads has been difficult and what is offered to the reader is not a definitive history. The antebellum East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad connected Chattanooga to Dalton via Ooletwah (Tennessee). In 1869 the Selma, Rome & Dalton connected Dalton to Rome. (The SR&D was taken over by ETV&G in 1880). The link from Rome to Rockmart (Georgia) and Rockmart to Atlanta were part of the ETV&G by 1887. Southern Railway took over the entire route in 1894. The awkward routing between Chattanooga and Atlanta serves as a reminder of the earlier systems. The track is a major NS line with a lot of traffic, perhaps surpassing CSX. NS is extending many sidings which hints of the traffic volume. The only tunnel on the route is now bypassed by a big cut.
A CSX train travels 135 miles between C.T. Tower in Chattanooga and Atlanta, NS 151 miles. Both railroads as well as the interstate cross what's left of the Appalachian Mountains enroute.
If you're traveling I-75, there are several good places to catch the action on CSX. Due to NS's routing there is really only one place to see their trains. In addition, there are some points of interest on CSX and NS that you may want to see. In most cases the traveler can exit the interstate at one exit, do a little train watching, and rejoin I-75 without straying too far out of the way.
There are five locations on this site: Ringgold, Tunnel Hill, Dalton, Cartersville, and Kennesaw. Dalton has the appeal of two railroads while Cartersville has the promise of heavy traffic, even if it's from one company.
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