In my drive back to Coastal Georgia from Monroe County, a stop in James was at the top of my list. I immediately became enamored of the place, but it was when we took a walk with Aubrey Newby down this abandoned rail bed that I understood the appeal of the place. Sure, I was there to see the houses, but this charming path through the woods drew me in and made James seem like a wonderland to me. Aubrey Newby recalls: When I was a kid the train still ran through the the middle of “town” and I would run down the big side porch on the end of the Duffy-Newby house and wave to the conductor who would blow the engine whistle for me.

I’m not sure which railroad used the long-gone tracks, but I know that L. P. James was involved with the Georgia Railroad. Whatever corporations followed it would have used this route, into the late 1980s or early 1990s, I imagine.