Eastern Railroad Discussion > Hartwell Railroad's Operational Museum

Hartwell is not an actual museum, but a small shortline in Georgia with power that could very well be seen in a museum. This week my friend and I made a trip down south to visit a few shortlines. We started the trip on Tuesday with a visit to East Tennessee Railway in Johnson City and then headed down to the Hartwell Railroad. Upon arrving at the Hartwell we found the crew down at Royston working with the Ex NS GP38-2 and Conrail GP38 #1973. They headed back to Bowersville where they tied those 2 units down and got on Ex EJE SD38 #654 and tied onto DRGW GP35 #3044 at the mill and made a few moves with those units. They then tied those down and got on the CNW GP9 #4556 and Ex STLA GP40 #3000 and tied onto the NS and Conrail unit. They then tied down there train at the mill and the engineer got down and started talking with us and explained they would be making a run to Toccoa the next morning with the CNW GP9 leading. So we got a hotel in Royston and woke up early to catch them coming into Lavonia. We followed them to Toccoa where they made a quick turn around and headed back east with the Ex Conrail leading back east. No words can describe how amazing it was to see an Ex CRIP...CNW GP9 in orginial CNW paint leading a train in 2020. Enjoy!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/20 13:02 by Ohiorailfan.

---

---

---

a few more from Tuesday

---

---

---

Wednesday's chase started with the train coming into Lavonia

---

---

---

A few shots west of Lavonia

---

---

---

West of Martin

---

---

---

Entering Toccoa

Leaving Toccoa

---

---

---

a few miles west of Martin

---

---

---

Martin and Lavonia

---

---

Interesting collection of...locomotives. I hope for the crew's sake they run better than they look.

I like it !  Definitely a fleet that looks like a true Dog's Breakfast of power. If you were a modeller of this road you would have to be an artist when it came to "Weathering."

Quite a collection of power. What is their primary traffic, chicken feed?

Wow - what a find !
Great set of shots.
Class I mainline consists for the most part are boring.
It looks like the shortlines around the country are where the interest is and you certainly find them around the country.
Gary

perklocal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like it !  Definitely a fleet that looks like a
> true Dog's Breakfast of power. If you were a
> modeller of this road you would have to be an
> artist when it came to "Weathering."

That #1973 would be quite a modeling challenge!

TJY

A model railroader must own this shortline.  BSB

On one hand, good to see DRGW 3044 is still around.  On the other hand - a real high nose CNW GP9 leading in 2020!  Fantastic shots.  I'd love to get back down there one of these days

Hey, these are in better condition than some of the power they've used in years past.

Great stuff! I caught that CN&W a couple of years ago myself while in the area but my favorite had to be when I came across a nice GP30 dual in 1997. 

---

srman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great stuff! I caught that CN&W a couple of years
> ago myself while in the area but my favorite had
> to be when I came across a nice GP30 dual in
> 1997. 

Woah! The corporate scheme is sharp! What happened to those units? As much as I love the "lving musum" that many shortlines provide, I also love sharp corporate schemes that aren't just copies of other railroads.

The GP30s are gone. One was sold and destined to become a genset from my understanding. I'll see if I can't dig up the last shot i took of it. There should be an old BL&E SD9 around there somewhere as well as an old RF&P unit

OK. Found them. The RF&P wsas trailing on the bottom shot. I can't find the roster shot I took of it.

The shots by the OP were fantastic, by the way

---

---

---

Thanks for the interesting pics...