CGRHS Spring 2014 Meeting Held in Durham, Ga.

The spring membership meeting of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, Inc., was held Friday–Saturday, March 21–22, 2014, in the Durham, Ga., area. Around 6:00 p.m. on Friday night, we had an informal gathering in the meeting room at the Hampton Inn West in Chattanooga, Tenn.

On Saturday morning, we met in the meeting room at the Hampton Inn for a presentation by CGRHS Director Arnold Eaves on the Fort Oglethorpe Branch and mining operations at Durham.

We departed the Hampton Inn in vans and drove to Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., to see the former CofGa depot/yard area. (See the article “The CofGa’s Fort Oglethorpe Branch” in the October–December 2011 issue of The Right Way.) We then traveled south to Chickamauga to see the wye location and the remains of the Chickamauga coke ovens.

We followed the route of the Durham District across Missionary Ridge to McCallie Lake, and then up Powder Springs Road (built on the former CofGa roadbed). We stopped along the road to see one of the old CofGa concrete/brick culverts which still carry water under the roadbed.

Following lunch, we visited the Lula Lake Land Trust at the top of the mountain. There, we walked a portion of the abandoned right of way alongside Rock Creek and beside Lula Lake and Lula Falls.

 

We then went through the Hinkle Community to the site of Trestle No. 14 (filled in 1914).

After hiking out to the site of the trestle, we drove to the site of Durham, where the mines were located and where the CofGa line ended. There, we saw the old coke ovens, found the site of the wye, hiked some remaining roadbed, and the saw the remaining foundation of the tipple.

About 25 people attended our meeting.