The legendary lore of West Georgia passenger train service reads like a adventure novel, filled with tales of mysterious wrecks, daring robberies and even snakes slitherling loose on a train.
As part of a blog series exploring the history of passenger train service in West Georgia and the end of the passenger train era in April 1971, we dug up several passenger train tales by combing the newspaper archives of the Library of Congress. Here’s a sampling of some we found, with links to PDF files of the newspapers in the Library of Congress archives.
Heroic Engineer
In May 1912, the No. 4 Northbound train left Marietta on a Monday morning. Reports indicated the tender car, with the engine ahead and passenger cars trailing, jumped the tracks while doing 25 mph as it approached the Etowah River crossing. Engineer Joe Latimer remained at the controls, fighting to stop the train while the engine and baggage cars also derailed. As passenger cars crossed a small trestle over a ravine, the trestle gave way, dropping the passenger cars and stopping the train. Latimer was killed in the crash, and the Marietta Daily Journal reported his heroic efforts. “The fact that Engineer Latimer stuck to his post and stopped the train in the face of certain death saved the lives of practically everyone on the train,” the newspaper reported.
Cobb County Robbery
The Great Cobbtrain robbery occurred in January 1914, near the Cobb and Fulton county line. A lone gunman surprised a conductor, then robbed nervous passengers of their belongings at gunpoint. The robber took about $300 from the men and women on the train, then jumped into the darkness as the train slowed. (In 2025 dollars, that would be equivalent to just under $10,000.)…