Restoration progress on "Roosevelt" line,......

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Central of Georgia Railway Historical Soc : One Thread

This was originally posted on the SRR message board, however, I thought y'all would like to see this also. I have "copied and pasted" what I wrote there.

I wrote in a couple of months ago about us restoring a portion of the old line between the Towaliga river in northeast Spalding county, down to Griffin (The old McDonough- Colombus line) -this is the one that president Roosevelt used to ride on. This particular part of the railroad line is owned by a friend of ours, and myself and a few other guys help to restore it in our spare time, along with the rides, etc. we do occasionaly. Anyway, we hit somewhat a milestone yesterday with the restoration efforts, we have finally cut and repaired it passable enough to the MP 9 trestle. We still have about 15 or 20 sections of track to replace due to a previous derailment, but there hasn't been a train wheel on the trestle in years that we know of. This is quite an accomplishment, as you couldn't even walk through the trees and bushes to get to the trestle by rail before we started (on our side, anyway.) We hope to improve it enough up to, and on the trestle to ride our fairmont, etc. on it comfortably. We still have a way to go, replacing damaged track, ties, etc., but we're getting there.

We currently have a portion of the approx. 7 mile line cleared, about 3 or so miles so far, and after we repair this section enough to make it continuous with what we already have, it should add a little over a mile being cleared. Interesting note, we have 2 steam locomotives on premises at our "meeting location", -inoperative at this time.

Question, does anyone else have any experience in rebuilding old railroad lines (as a hobby?) We have 4 RR crossings that were paved over, and need some tips on the best way to have them cleared, with a minimum of $$. We currently have 3 cleared crossings that we maintain.

Thank you, and if any of you have any questions, or would like to help us out, please call John Gilbert, # 770 337-1240, or myself, at 404-392-6103. This is a lot of sometimes hard work, but the reward of seeing the railroad restored is worth it to me.

-- Elton (repoman801@aol.com), May 18, 2003

...It should also be noted that there is someone else who bought some of the old training track on the north side of our property, and another county (Henry) trying to condem our MP9 trestle. This is currently in litigation.

-- Elton (repoman801@aol.com), May 24, 2003

Answers

...In addition, if anyone would like to come see what we've done on the line so far, would like to help out, even go for a ride on our scooter, etc. please call either one of us at the numbers listed above. This is not a "top secret" thing, we welcome railroad enthusiasts.

This line, operation, etc. is called the "Roosevelt railroad museum" in honor of President Roosevelt, who used to ride this line on the way to Warm Springs, Ga.

I have several digital pictures of various places on the line I'd like to post, if anyone could offer me a place to put them.

Thank you.

-- Elton (repoman801@aol.com), May 25, 2003.


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