Can anybody tell me anything about this little hamlet? History, pronunciation (Is it Cay-Mack or Cam-ack or Cam-uk? lol) whether CSX will let you park near the depot and take pics of the trains coming through, etc? They had a Camak Railroad Days festival back in April, but I had to work that weekend and wasn’t able to go. Seems to be a railfan friendly town, but in this day and age, I don’t want to get arrested for taking pictures and just watching.
For those who’re interested, this is a little wye junction on the CSX Atlanta-Augusta line about an hour and a half east of Atlanta, before you get to Augusta, where the lines from Atlanta and Augusta meet up with a line from Eatonton and points farther south. Looks to be about 6 yard tracks here, and in about 5 minutes time last night, I saw about 4 trains meeting at once. Other than the Atlanta to Augusta trains, I’ve read there is a rock quarry nearby and I know there’s a power plant on Lake Sinclair that receives coal which has to come through here as well.
You could try looking up the festival organizers and see if they know anything. If you can find private land with a view, you can ask the owner of THAT for permission to watch. Anybody who wants can park by the side of the road and look from there (be ready to explain yourself to Highway Patrol - maybe bring a copy of MR along). If nothing else is going by at the time you can walk around on the street side of the depot and photograph that.
Civil War history may be of help to you, if these tracks were there then. (General Sherman might have been rather rough on 'em.) Southern RR, Central of Georgia, Seaboard Coast Line historical societies and railfan clubs may also be able to give you help. The State of Georgia may have something or other of use or at least interest (tax records may help you determine local customers).
If you haven’t seen this, there is additional information and pictures about Camak in Robert Hanson’s book, History of the Georgia Railroad. It was printed in 1996, and I do not know if it is stiall available. If not, visit the Interlibrary Loan Dept. at your public library - they’ll probably be able to trak it down.
If I remember correctly, the last mixed train in regular scheduled service in Georgia and possibly the US ran from Camak to Macon for several years.Don’t remember when but probably ended in the 1970’s.