As everyone probably knows, employee timetables list train order offices in the special instructions section. I have several Macon division timetables with the oldest one being a 1941 edition. On the Albany to Dothan/Florala line train order offices are shown at Leary, Arlington, Blakely, Columbia, Dothan, Slocomb, Hartford, Samson, and Florala. I have heard from several "old-timers" about depots existing in other towns as well. My Grandmother, who passed away many years ago, told me she could remember a depot in Hilton GA. I have also heard recollections of depots in Bancroft, Williams Station, and Webb. My question is this: Is it possible that there were depots in these towns around this time and perhaps they were Agency only (no train orders) or were they simply there at one time and closed before 1941??? I don't know when the railroads started closing many depots but I would have thought it would have been before 1941. My particular interest is in Hilton, my hometown. Does anyone know of a depot that existed at Hilton at any time and were there depots throughout the CofG that were not listed in timetables???

Perhaps what was thought to be depots were watering/coaling facilities or section houses.

Any help would be appreciated.

Bryan Smith

-- Bryan Smith (bsmith3608@aol.com), January 11, 2000

Answers

Bryan, I looked in an old Offical Guide reprint dated January 1910 and Hilton was listed but not as a train order station. It was however sandwiched between two which were Blakely and Columbia. This is not to say that it never was a train order office. I know that were I grew up in Chattooga County GA on the Chattanooga to Griffin line that some old emp. timetables list Lyerly as a train order office and some don't and some list Berryton (formerly Raccoon) and some don't but it was always seemed to be one or the other, These were adjacent stations so the Central must have shifted it back and forth to fit their needs. In other words, Hilton may have been a train order station at one time or several different times... Warren

-- Warren D. Stephens (wdstephens@prodigy.net), January 27, 2000.

Bryan,

The Central of Georgia Official List to which Larry Goolsby refers is a great source of information. I have three different years in my collection, 1949, 1954, and 1961. The "Alphabetical Listing of Stations" in each book gives the following information on Hilton, GA:

1. Macon Division, Dothan District 2. No Coal, No Water 3. 28 car capacity track 4. No telegraph call letters 5. Freight station for both carload and less-than-carload shipments 6. No tickets for sale 7. Operating number J356 8. Audit number 539

(The information is the same for each of the three years.)

Hope this helps.

Allen Tuten

-- Allen Tuten (allen@cofg.org), January 12, 2000.

I'm more familiar with ACL and SAL practice, but based on that and general knowledge, I feel certain there was a depot at Hilton if that was a town of any size at all. Up through the 50s, nearly every town had one. Although most depots also doubled as train order offices, some were not. Train order offices were spaced at certain intervals depending on operating conditions and traffic, while depots were established to handle passenger and freight traffic, so the two were not always the same. One good example was the "block office" that existed on the CofG at the junction at the west end of the Ocmulgee River bridge at Macon; it was there to give out train orders and nothing else. Interlocking towers were in the same category. On the Seaboard, there was a train order office at Gravelton, N. C. that was about 8 feet square, just big enough for a desk and a chair basically. It was there to give orders to trains originating at the nearby gravel pit and served none of the usual depot functions.

Back to depots that were not t. o. offices - I'm sure the CofG like other RRs had lists of all depots - these should show up in the CofGa "Official Lists" that various CGRHS members should have. Also, they will be in things like Rates of Pay booklets that the telegrapher's union and the RR issued from time to time. Finally, if you want to get exhaustive in your research, the National Archives has in the ICC valuation collection field notes from the circa-1915 valuation surveys that described (and sometimes sketched and photographed) every building the RRs had at the time.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), January 11, 2000.