Atlanta to Nashville via Dixie Flyer in 1952 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I got a chance to ride the rails with mom before planes and cars took over traveling.

    I think the year was about 1952 and I was 7 years old. My cousin Art lived in Nashville, Tennessee. My mom and I boarded the train at the old Union Station in Atlanta for a summer visit. I believe it was called the Dixie Flyer.

    This was my first train ride and I was excited about the prospects of riding the rails cross-country. The railroad tracks ran from Atlanta almost adjacent to Hwy 41. This was long before they built the Interstate Expressway system. I think we stopped at every town between Atlanta and Nashville but in reality, we probably stopped every 30-40 miles to pick up new passengers. The conversion from Steam Engines to Diesel engines had almost been completed.

    The seats in the Pullman car were not the most comfortable but they had the advantage of being the cheapest, which was always high on my dad's list. The saving grace was that they had large windows so I could see the scenery as we rolled along.

    Nashville is about 240 Miles from Atlanta by Rail. I guess the trip lasted about 6-7 hours if you figure an average of 35 MPH, which would have been a good average because of the number of stops along the way.

    I was excited for about the first 2 hours of the trip but pretty soon all the pastures and fields began to look the same and I was left to nothing but my thoughts for the rest if the trip. I may even have dosed off a couple of times hypnotized by the rhythm of the wheels on the tracks. The route of the train was the same as it had been since before the War of Northern Aggression. There was a dip into Alabama around the Chattanooga, Tennessee border because of Lookout Mountain and the steep terrain.

    The Dixie Flyer was discontinued in 1966 and like many other passenger trains; it was a victim of plummeting ridership in the face of airline and highway competition.

    Though my memories are dim about the trip, I think I was fortunate to have been able to "ride the rails" before the highways took over.

    Later during my sales career, I travelled to Chattanooga and Nashville via auto on a regular basis on I75 -I24 and I found one thing remained true to the train trip. After a while, all the pastures and fields began to look the same and the tires hitting the expansion strips on the road were reminiscent of the rails popping.

    In 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was killed in California, his body was taken via a train procession from New York to Washington DC for burial in Arlington. I was out of the country then. One of my favorite songwriters who worked with Bobby Kennedy during the campaign, wrote a tribute song, and released it in 1970. When I first heard that song, it reminded me where I was on June 6, 1968. I have previously posted about that here on BCN. The next thought that came to mind was the long silent ride in 1952 with nothing but my mom and my thoughts. I guess that Bobby's last ride from New York to Washington was also quite with most people left with nothing but their own thoughts.

    Here is a poor quality capture of the song as performed on a TV show by John Stewart and introduced by John Hartford.

    Clack Clack Clack

Submitted by Bobby Tony