I would like to thank all of the people who worked for me at the Georgia Northeastern Railroad Company, Inc. (GNRR), as well as all of the volunteers and employees who worked for me at the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway (BRSR). 

I would especially like to thank Dick Hillman for his friendship and help with this book. After Dick retired from General Motors and had worked for GNRR for several years, he published a book on the Glover Machine Works in Marietta, Georgia, which was the South’s last builder of steam locomotives. From day one, he was a major contributor to the operations of GNRR before he got involved in starting the BRSR. From both Dick’s and my standpoints, all of this was a labor of love.

Let me name a few other people who contributed to my success: David Booker and Mac Purdy, who helped me with the startup of my software company, Railcar Management, Inc. (RMI). Also Jim Day, who was the Chief Financial Officer in four of my railroad related companies. My dear friend and employee, the late Bill Walker, was the Chief Mechanical Officer for my leasing company, Railcar, Ltd, plus the GNRR and the BRSR. Bill did impossible things to railcars, like increasing the height of boxcars so Canadian National Railway could double-stack rolls of paper in their cars. Bill also did the same thing for 60 ft. insulated boxcars, which meant we had to also add additional insulation inside of boxcars. These insulated cars were specifically modified to haul beer for Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado, which were the first railcars they used to ship by rail. Some of the larger leasing companies said all of this couldn’t be done, but Bill Walker proved them wrong. The late J. Paul Myers, who, after he retired from Norfolk Southern and came to work for me, taught me how to collect and pay car hire that railroads owed each other.

Ray Leader, while still working for the Federal Aviation Administration, was involved as a volunteer in the dinner train and scenic railroads run by Class I Railroads. Ray helped organize and staff the BRSR. He also served as the BRSR’s Lead Conductor, and later as its longest serving General Manager.   

There are two amateur photographers, Martin O’Toole and David Booker, who love railroad history and takingpictures of locomotives and railcars on the GNRR and BRSR and we have benefited greatly from their skills.  A local historian, Dale Dyer, helped with the information about Blue Ridge and his son, Larry Dyer, did the research on the history of the locomotives and passenger cars we purchased. Dale Dyer, who as December 2020 will be 101 years old, has been a faithful advocate of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway for many years. Dale has been writing articles for the News Observer Newspaper in Blue Ridge for over twenty years. Many of his articles are about the history of Fannin County and the Georgia railroads and how they have impacted the county for over 130 years. Dale has included in his stories how the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway has boosted the area economically and has related his experiences watching Fourth of July fireworks from the train and even told of a special trip he made to Talking Rock on the train one evening. Although Dale’s first love is flying, he has a warm spot in his heart for trains, especially the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway. 

Interestingly the current operation of the GNRR is still probably the last place in North America that uses a set of switchbacks necessitated by the extreme elevation difference in hauling marble products up from the Tate-area marble plants to the small railroad yard in Tate, Georgia. One of GNRR’s most important employees, Donnie Plumley, started his railroad career working for Georgia Marble on August 5, 1973, as a switchman and backup engineer in moving marble to Tate. On weekends, he earned extra money by working on maintenance-of-way projects. On December 15, 1987, Donnie was hired by GNRR as a switchman. Then in July 1988, he got promoted to an engineer, followed by getting a promotion to the Manager of the Maintenance-of-Way department in April 1991. When Keith Douglas was forced to retire because of health problems, Donnie was promoted to GNRR’s General Manager in September 2004, where he stayed until his retirement in 2019. 

Another person who came on the scene to help with the launching of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, was Tom Lockett. In July 1990, Jim Day hired Tom to serve as Controller for RMI, Railcar, Ltd., and GNRR. In 1995, Tom became the Chief Financial Officer of Railcar, Ltd., until it was sold in 1996 to Progress Rail. In 1998, Tom moved to GNRR’s office in Marietta to serve as its and BRSR’s Chief Financial Officer. Tom was instrumental in managing many things, but none more cumbersome than helping to manage 177 volunteers and/or employees of the BRSR in 2004. In April 2011, Tom retired and moved to Texas.

One other person who has served me well for almost thirty years is my assistant, Joy Hardin, who, upon my retirement in 2016, has stayed on to work with this grumpy old 82-year-old senior citizen. 

The contributions that my son, Michael Pierce, made after he started working at GNRR in 1994, changed in order to meet the needs of the company.  His first position at GNRR was to work in the railroad’s maintenance-of-way department so he could learn how a railroad operated. At that time, he worked out of Tate, Georgia, which meant he had to commute daily from Atlanta to Tate, approximately sixty miles each way. Then in 1995, after GNRR relocated its office from Tate to Marietta, Georgia, where the railroad interchanges with CSX, Michael began managing all of the easements and right-of-ways along the railroad, which consisted at the time of seventy-two miles from Marietta to Whitepath, Georgia. After the startup of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway in 1998, Michael, as the executive vice president assumed other duties pertaining to managing the operations of the scenic railroad. 

Wilds L. Pierce II