*1896 reorganized as the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railroad.

1871 to 1887, this line was the Georgia & North Carolina Railroad.

The original plan for this railroad was to haul from marble quarries in northern Georgia and from iron ore mines in North Carolina. The Marietta & North Georgia Railroad was constructed as a 3' narrow gauge line, but a third rail was added in the late 1880s to accommodate both standard and narrow gauge trains.

In receivership most of the 1890s, the line was reorganized as the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railroad in 1896.

In 1887, the company was consolidated with the Georgia & North Carolina Railroad and renamed the Marietta and North Georgia Railway.

Originally built as narrow gauge (3’-0”), the line was converted to standard gauge in 1889-90, except for the Blue Ridge-Murphy branch, which was not changed over until late in 1897.

On August 9, 1890, the line became part of a through route from Atlanta to Knoxville when the Knoxville Southern Railroad, a subsidiary, completed tracks from Tennessee to Blue Ridge.

In early 1891 the railroad entered receivership, but it wasn’t until 1896 that it was sold. The Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railroad, chartered in June of 1896, became the successor to the Marietta & North Georgia Railway.

Six years later, in 1902, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad acquired the line. After the L&N was incorporated into CSX, some sections of the line in north Georgia were semi-abandoned while the southern end was sold to a shortline operator, the Georgia Northeastern Railroad.

Towns on Route (in NC):

NC/GA State Line

Culberson (1887)

Englands Point > Ranger (1889) > Oak Park (1912)

Kinsey (1889)

Murphy