The Great Locomotive Chase!

No more “Trip to Atlanta Pt.…” titles as I have a feeling these posts will go into double digits! When I visited Atlanta in 2007, I saw the Texas Locomotive at the Grant Park location (above). The smoke stack looked like it was made of paper mache and the rest of the engine was garishly painted. In 2015, the Texas was moved to its present location at the Atlanta History Center. What a difference!



The Texas is best known for its role in the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862. From the Atlanta History website:

Unlike the hundreds of locomotives that serviced the W&A RR and its successors, the Texas and the General evaded the scrap heap because of their roles in the Great Locomotive Chase. In the 1862 incident, Union raiders commandeered the General from the town of Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) and drove it north toward Chattanooga, attempting to destroy bridges and the W&A line. They were finally caught by Confederate forces that had pursued aboard the Texas. The Great Locomotive Chase lives large in pop culture as the subject of a 1926 Buster Keaton film and a popular 1956 Disney movie, as well as in dozens of books. In 1907, the “Ladies of Atlanta,” a fund-raising group organized to save the Texas, rescued the engine from the W&A yard in Atlanta where it was headed for scrap. The engine was donated to the City of Atlanta in 1908 and put on outdoor display in Atlanta’s Grant Park in 1911. It was placed in the Cyclorama building there in 1927, paired with The Battle of Atlanta painting as monumental reminders of the bloodiest conflict on American soil.

Film buffs have most likely heard of the Buster Keaton silent movie, “The General” (1926), inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase.



Keaton looked into shooting the film in the area where the original events took place, and attempted to authorize a lease agreement for the real-life General. At that time, the locomotive was on display at Chattanooga Union Station. His request was denied, so Keaton’s location manager, Burt Jackson, found an area in Oregon with old-fashioned railroads which were more authentic to the period of the film. He also discovered that the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway owned two vintage locomotives that looked the part and purchased them for the production. A third locomotive in Oregon was acquired to portray the Texas for the iconic bridge collapse stunt.



Here is the trailer for “The General”



The General is currently located at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, in Kennesaw, Georgia, close to where the chase began. From 2015 to 2017, the Atlanta History Center worked with Steam Operations Corporation and the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, North Carolina, to restore the Texas to its 1886 appearance. Many parts were rusted or lost, with several of the tender’s wooden beams rotted. In May 2017, the restored Texas and its tender were hoisted into the Rollins Gallery at Atlanta History Center, where I was able to see them up close and personal!







Nearby the Texas is the Zero Milepost. From the descriptive placard:

Mile-marker posts were usually placed along railroads at each mile. This told train crews where they were along a specific route. Similar mile markers continued to be used on railroads. This stone marker was placed in downtown Atlanta in the 1850s to identify the beginning point - 00 - of the rail line. From that time, this milepost stood along Central Avenue between Lower Alabama and Wall Streets. In 2018, the Georgia Building Authority licensed the Atlanta History Center to move the Zero Milepost to the Atlanta History Museum for preservation and public display.



Is there more to come from the Atlanta History Center? Of course!

See more Atlanta History Center photos at my main website.