Hi,
I was looking at my Sanborn maps for Monroe GA.
The history is that the Gainesville Jefferson & Southern railroad was built in the early 1880's. This 36" gauge railroad built from Gainesville GA on Southern Ry (and it's predecessors) to Social Circle GA on the Georgia Railroad.
It was a major textile and cotton manufacturing town. When the GJ&S arrived, Monroe had it's connection to the outside world.
Sanborn 1901 monroe ga sheet 1
Sanborn 1901 monroe ga sheet 2
This is basically a rather simple track plan like most small towns on any short line or narrow gauge (as far as the maps show).
In 1904, the GJ&S when through bankruptcy and became the Gainesville Midland RR. It was purchased by a mineral businessman north of Gainesville to make sure he could get competitive shipping prices. Since the GJ&S/GM reached to Monroe (the Monroe-Social Circle section was purchased by the Georgia Railroad and standard gauged), apparently the first competitor to Southern Ry was via the narrow gauge GJ&S to the Ga RR.
In 1905-6 the branch line to Jefferson GA was standard gauged and extended to Athens GA. This became the mainline and Monroe became the end of the branch line.
Notice that there are only two tracks that are dual gauge - on the right the 3-rail track is servicing local businesses. The middle track has a short section of 4-rail trackage. I believe this is a Ramsey Transfer.
The 1909 Sanborn maps show the dual gauge yard.
Sanborn 1909 monroe ga sheet 1
Sanborn 1909 monroe ga sheet 2
Sanborn 1909 monroe ga sheet 3
In 1914, the GM ran its last narrow gauge train and the Monroe branch was standard gauged. In 1915 a small short line named the Greene County RR arrived from the east.
The 1916 Sanborn maps now show the town having three (3) sg railroads all connecting in Monroe.
Sanborn 1916 monroe ga sheet 1
Sanborn 1916 monroe ga sheet 2
Sanborn 1916 monroe ga sheet 3
Sanborn 1916 monroe ga sheet 6
Sanborn 1916 monroe ga sheet 7
I think this little town would be a very interesting to model.
I'd like to find photos of the building from the 1900-1920 era to write an article about this interesting little town but I have not yet located any photos. If you know where any might be, please let me know.
Thanks.
Doug vV
