Headed Home – Railroad Depots Plus!

I’d decided to stretch out our return drive from Florida back up to East Tennessee, staying overnight in Valdosta.  The next day, with a relatively short drive remaining, I decided to get off of I-75 and head north through the countryside and some small towns on local highways.  For our first stretch of off-highway driving, we got off the superhighway at Ashburn Georgia and then we got back on I-75 at Perry Georgia. 

In Arabi Georgia, we encountered this railway depot and caboose.  The depot was built by the Georgia Southern & Florida Railroad in 1888.  The local historical society moved the depot to its current location just south of town where it’s part of an outdoor museum and flea market. 

Arabi is bucking the trend among small rural towns.  It’s having a growth spurt!  The population has grown by over 32% since 2000! (From a total of 456 residents to the current count of 597)

There is a story that claims that Arabi was named after the town’s founding father…R.A. Bedgood.  He had such a large farm that when the train stopped on its regular stop nearby, they’d ask if they had any “R-A-B’s”, i.e., packages for R.A. Bedgood.  The slang “R-A-B’s”, got turned into Arrowbye…and then into Arabi. (Just say “R-A-B” fast to understand how this could happen!)

Laurie took this photo of CSX Diesel Locomotive #6350 rolling south pulling a train of coal cars.  This GP40-2 Remote Road Switcher Locomotive is one of 861 that were built by GM’s Electromotive Division between 1972 and 1981. 

CSX is the largest rail system in the Eastern USA with over 22,000 miles of track in 23 states and 2 Canadian provinces.  The line also has 3,700 locomotives and 100,000 freight cars.  CSX annually moves about 5,200,000 carloads of freight.  

We spotted this beautiful old plantation home with these great arching trees as we drove north from Arabi along US Highway 41.  I thought that the photo was worth sharing… 

To view some historic, interesting and beautiful photos of what’s left of ‘old time’ southern Georgia, just go to http://vanishingsouthgeorgia.com. 

We both loved the ‘look’ of this 1910 Planter’s Warehouse.  Again I should have noted the name of the small town where it was located…but hey, I’m lucky if I know what day of the week it is!

I did some research to see if I could identify this building and the town… No luck!  However, I did learn about the U.S. Warehouse Act (USWA) that was passed in August of 1916.  It authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to license public warehouse operators in the business of storing agricultural products.  This is a “permissive regulatory act” in that it applies only to warehouse operators who voluntarily apply… I suspect that this was a cotton warehouse.  Currently, there are 190 cotton warehouses licensed under or through the USWA.

This is the old Louisville and Nashville Railroad Depot in Ellijay Georgia.  This north Georgia depot was built in 1912.  As you can see, it’s now been ‘repurposed’ by a local business..

To close the circle of railroad life…the Louisville and Nashville Railroad operated from 1850 until 1982 when it was absorbed by the Seaboard System.  The Seaboard System was in turn swallowed up when, in 1986, it was merged with the Chessie System to create CSX Transportation.

As it turns out, we should have gone to the other end of the Ellijay Depot to take our photo!  This is the photogenic view of the same depot as ‘borrowed’ from a very interesting and informative website, http://railga.com/.

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave