As the replacement of worn out Civil War era railroad equipment transitioned took time, nobody knew what to do with the engines in the late 1800’s.
The cars were simply burned or dismantled as the depreciated, and replaced cheaply (around $1,500 each). The same fate, luckily, was delayed either out of sentiment or indecision on the steam engines – a few of which were left rusting on a weeded siding in Vinings.
Sermon - from period
How sad it is in the profession and calling of life to see the young and vigorous ones pushing the old ones aside! Between our town, Cartersville, and Atlanta, at Vining Station, on the Western and Atlantic railroad, there are more than a dozen old, worn-out, dilapidated engines, side tracked, covered with rust, and stamped with death. The younger and better engines are steaming and running to and fro, and pass the old rusty ones on the side track every day, not turning their eyes even to look at the decrepitude of the old engines laid aside.
Thunderbolts:Comprising Most Ernest Reasonings, Delightful Narratives…by Sam Porter Jones, Evangelistic Sermons, pub 1895; p.426-27
In early 1892, E. Warren Clark, of Columbia, Tennessee, a professional photographer and lecturer, located the General on the siding at Vinings and came up with the idea of having the old engine rehabilitated and displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He also made a historic photograph of the General and two other W&A engines while stored on the side track at Vinings, one of which in the background was rumored to be the other half of the famous “Locomotive Chase” the Texas. Andersonraid.com 1892-1897
The Texas, according to records, stayed in service longer, and gets second billing housed at Grant Park since 1927. The General gets the glory as a gleaming centerpiece in the Kennesaw Train Museum north of Marietta. However even today as one walks the old sidetrack remaining, the bits of old scrape iron about conjure the imagination of whether they were once a loose part of the past Vining's engine graveyard.
One has to wonder why these engines are in two different locations? Would Atlanta give it up to come to Vinings? ummmm
