Oglethorpe University employee prevents 1939 train accident
On a cold Monday morning, February 20, 1939, Tom Long made a dangerous discovery on the Southern Railway track near Oglethorpe University. He was working as custodian of the buildings and grounds of the university and went to check on a carload of coal expected to arrive at the Oglethorpe University railroad station that Monday morning. The railroad depot was just across the road from the university.
The train station that once sat across Peachtree Road from Oglethorpe University. Photo from the Oglethorpe University archives
Long noticed a large iron beam projecting from a switch. It was a brake beam that came loose from a freight car as the car passed the switch. The Atlanta Constitution reported, “The beam had lodged in the switch, splitting the frog wide open so that any train which followed over this track was doomed to be wrecked.” A railroad frog is equipment that allows a train to cross from one track to another. (Atlanta Constitution, February 22, 1939, “Stands Guard Over Split Switch to Prevent Disaster”)
Both the Piedmont Limited and the Southern Crescent Limited made regular trips through Brookhaven on their way from New York to New Orleans via Atlanta. According to “A History of Georgia Railroads,” by Robert C. Jones, the Piedmont Limited made the trip from 1899 to 1976 and the Southern Crescent, later known just as the Crescent, began the trip in 1925.
68-year-old Long stood at the split switch for an hour and a half in freezing weather. He knew the Piedmont Limited daily schedule. It would be passing at 8:30 am and he didn’t want it to hit the dangerous switch. He could have sounded an alarm but was afraid to stop guarding the switch and watching for trains.
When he saw the Crescent Limited come by earlier on a parallel track, he jumped up and down, waving frantically to get the attention of the engine’s crew. They stopped, inspected the track and sent for a repair crew from Atlanta.
The repair was completed before the Piedmont Limited came through. At 8:30 am the Piedmont Limited came down the tracks as usual, not slowing down and not knowing that Tom Long had saved the day. He prevented a wreck of the Piedmont Limited.
Long was born on a farm in North Carolina in 1871. He had six sisters and five brothers. In 1891 he enlisted in the army and fought in the Spanish-American War.
In 1919, he married Myrtle Durham and they moved to Atlanta. The couple is listed in the 1930 and 1940 census records as living on the Oglethorpe University campus in the Cross Keys District of DeKalb County. They had three children.
During the Great Depression, Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, President of the university, cut everyone’s pay so that no one person would lose their job. Tom Long was one of those who kept his job, leading to that day in 1939 when he saved the day. (Philip Weltner Library Archives, Oglethorpe University)