Sanford Bell, an unknown stalwart of the Western & Atlantic Railroad

The venerable conductor was ‘part and parcel of the very existence of the road’

I’ve grown particularly fascinated by the people who worked on and shaped the Western & Atlantic Railroad.

One of those was Sanford Luilem Bell, who served with the railroad for 45 years.

Born in Anderson, South Carolina, on December 15, 1824,[1] he joined the Western & Atlantic on April 20, 1852, as a conductor on a freight train.[2] Reports suggest Georgia’s then-Governor Howell Cobb appointed him to the post.[3]

In his obituary, The Atlanta Journal reported that he “ran” the first Western & Atlantic train into the city, but that is likely incorrect.[4] After three years, he began as a passenger train conductor.

His tenure included service during the Civil War. He bridged the railroad’s earliest years and continued into the early years of its lease to a private company.