(The following story by Alex McRae appeared on The Times-Herald website on June 12, 2009.)
NEWNAN, Ga. — It’s been some 30 years since railroad cars rumbled eastward through Senoia toward Griffin — but before dawn Thursday, several freight cars that had been parked at a Senoia manufacturing facility by Norfolk Southern Railroad “escaped” and took an unguided tour of downtown.
The unscheduled trip to nowhere was halted by a heavy growth of weeds, vines and overhanging trees on the long-abandoned stretch of track just east of town near Senoia State Park. One car derailed during the incident.
Just after noon, a locomotive eased back along the same stretch of track, hooked up to the cars and pulled them westward out of town to the Winpak Films, Inc. plant on Andrews Parkway, where the cars had been parked hours earlier by Norfolk-Southern.
Winpak Films, Inc. is a manufacturer of flexible packaging. The train cars are not the property of Winpak but were delivering materials to the plant. Winpak had not taken delivery of the material on the cars and was not responsible in any way for the incident, said Kevin Byers, president of Winpak Films, Inc.
“We are just glad that no one was hurt and that no serious damage was done,” Byers said.
Byers said the derailed car was owned by Westlake Polymers.
“I’m not aware of any environmental concerns,” Byers said.
Senoia City Administrator Richard Ferry said that as far as he knew, the derailment was not cause for concern by any regulatory agencies, and environmental officials did not seem worried. A small amount of solid plastic material was spilled, but it was quickly cleaned up, Ferry said.
It is believed that after the cars were uncoupled by Norfolk Southern on the Winpak property, they began rolling slowly back toward town.
The most interesting story Ferry heard about the incident can’t be verified but bears retelling.
Ferry said he heard that after the cars started to roll back toward town, a man from the train started running after the train cars and hollering at them as he and the freight cars went through town.
“I wish I had seen that,” Ferry said. “But I don’t know what he thought he was going to do if he caught those cars.”
Local businessman Donald Brandenburg heard about the incident while he was eating breakfast. He said that at lunch time a big crowd gathered near the railroad tracks by Senoia Coffee Company when the locomotive slowly came by, hooked up the loose cars and pulled them back through town.
“When that train whistle blew the first time people didn’t know what to think,” Brandenburg said. “You don’t hear that sound downtown any more. But those railroad folks worked hard getting the track fixed, and everybody enjoyed watching the whole thing. It was pretty exciting for Senoia.”
Senoia is located at the end of the Norfolk-Southern rail line that runs from Senoia through Newnan, Carrollton, Rome, Dalton and into Tennessee.
The stretch of abandoned track running east-west through downtown Senoia was once owned by Central of Georgia Railroad and ran east from Senoia to Experiment, Ga., just north of Griffin.
The Senoia/Experiment line was abandoned in the late 1970s or early ’80s, according to a local resident. Since that time, heavy vegetation has largely covered that portion of the track east of Bridge and Clark streets near a north/south CSX Railroad line.
Ferry said no city infrastructure was damaged.
“We’re glad it turned out all right and nobody was hurt,” he said. “We’re not happy for anyone when these things happen, but it sure does make things interesting.”