The Greenville & Northern Railroad
“The Carolina, Knoxville & Western Railway was built from Greenville to Marietta in 1888. The railway was originally chartered to build a line from Augusta, GA, to Knoxville, TN. The line was extended to River Falls for a total of 23 miles, and then was abandoned in 1899 (one of the earlier abandonments on record!). The Greenville & Knoxville Railroad was formed to revive the line in 1907 and ran it until 1914. The company was reorganized as the Greenville & Western, and was then renamed the Greenville & Northern in 1920. The line was cut back to Travelers Rest in the mid-1950s, but the section between Traveler’s Rest and Cleveland was not officially abandoned until 1970.
The Carolina Piedmont Division of the South Carolina Central Railroad bought the G & N in April 1997, and the last train ran on the G & N in January 1998. Railtex (the owner of CPD-SCCR) sold the right of way to the Greenville County Economic Development Corporation. There are reportedly no plans to reopen this line in the works. Most of the remaining G & N is out of service.
The G & N extended from Greenville to Berea, White Oak, Montague, Altamount (going right by the Furman University campus), to Traveler’s Rest, Hellams, Slater, Marietta, Cleveland, Riverview, ending at River Falls.”

