Butts-Monroe County GaArchives News.....Ocmulgee Covers Railroad Tracks February 16, 1900
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864  November 25, 2007, 1:00 am

Jackson Argus February 16, 1900
Traffic was suspended on the Southern railway between Atlanta and Macon three 
days this week.  At Dames Ferry in Monroe County, the red waters of the 
Ocmulgee river covered the tracks to a depth of seven feet.  The usually quiet 
and inoffensive stream, swollen to an angry torrent by the recent rains, 
overflowed the banks at this point Tuesday and made a gulf which submerged 
nearly a quarter of a mile of the track running parallel with the river and 
close to the banks.

The evening passenger from Macon was the last train to go through the rising 
waters.  It is due in Atlanta at 3:15pm, but was an hour late.

The southbound train went over the submerged section an hour before the 
northbound train.   The river had then barely covered the tracks and the train 
went through without difficulty and suffered only a slight damage to the 
fires.  At the meeting point below Dames Ferry, the crew of the southbound told 
the northbound crew of the rising waters and warned them of the danger.   
Engineer Russell, after consulting the conductor, was determined to bring his 
train into Atlanta and began preparation for the battle with the angry waters.  
He knew it was to be a contest between steam and a mad stream, and his 
experience warned him to make his calculations letter perfect, before the 
conflict.  A telegram from the section boss at Dames Ferry told him that the 
track was solid and the ballast intact though they were four feet under water.  
At the station nearest the overflow he called the porter with four blast of the 
whistle, and had the tender stacked full of dry wood and kindling and the fires 
in his engine built to a roaring pitch.  The passengers knew by this time what 
lay ahead of them and they crowded around the engineer to ask the usual 
questions.    I am going to buck the river, he told them.  All I ask is that 
you people sit steady and hold tight when she begins to run.  I’ll break 
through if the track hold out.

The passengers climbed back into the coaches and the engineer mounted his box; 
1002 jumped like a racehorse at the drop of a flag when he opened the 
throttle.   She snorted and blew out vast columns of black smoke as she flew 
over the rails.   Russell gradually increased the steam pressure as he 
approached the overflow until the throttle was wide open when half a mile from 
the water.  He could not see the river where it covered the track because the 
overflow was just around a sharp curve.  He knew exactly where it was through, 
and he warned the passengers to “sit steady and hold tight” by a sharp blast 
from the whistle.   The windows in the coaches and the engine cab were closed 
down and everybody stopped breathing.   The engine struck the water at full 
speed.  It was low tide at first and the wheels hissed through it as though it 
was though they were red hot.  In an instant the pilot dived beneath the 
surface and then the train stuck deep water.  A great column was thrown up by 
the momentum of the engine and the six heavy coaches and the whole train was 
for a moment engulfed.  The water reached nearly to the coach windows as they 
sped through and the passengers began to lose hope.  Engineer Russell has 
calculated well.  The engine bucked the river and went through like a center 
rush.  The steam died away as she came out to the edges on the other side.  The 
fires were already dead and the train came to a full stop a hundred feet from 
the point where the tracks cleared the river, 1002 breathed a few heave sighs 
and then gave up, victorious but exhausted.

Jackson Argus – Butts County
Week of February 16, 1900




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