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The Silver Comet Trail is a paved, twelve-foot-wide rail trail that runs about 61 miles west from the Atlanta suburbs at Highland Station and Mavell Road to the Alabama line at Esom Hill, crossing Cobb, Paulding, and Polk counties. The eastern miles pass through Powder Springs, Hiram, and Dallas with frequent trailheads and road crossings. West of Dallas the trail crosses the Pumpkinvine Creek trestle, enters the Paulding Forest Wildlife Management Area, and passes through the Brushy Mountain Tunnel before reaching Rockmart and Cedartown. The grade is rail-grade easy with long, gentle hills rather than a single climb. At the state line the route continues as Alabama's Chief Ladiga Trail.
Silver Comet Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Silver Comet Trail has about 108 to 168 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, e-biking, dog walking, birding, biking, walking, and running, with March, October, and November the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Silver Comet Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Silver Comet Trail peaks November 2 to 11, typically around November 7. The trail has 28% deciduous coverage, with the majority being sweetgum, yellow-poplar, white oak, southern red oak, chestnut oak, and red maple.
The last Silver Comet passenger train pulled out of Atlanta for Birmingham on January 18, 1969. A Cartersville and Van Wert Railroad, chartered in 1868 as a five-foot broad gauge road, was reorganized as the Cherokee Railroad in 1870 and reached Rockmart before the Cherokee Iron Company bought it in 1879. The East and West Railroad of Alabama leased that line in 1881 and pushed it through Cedartown and Esom Hill toward Pell City, Alabama. The East and West went bankrupt, and on April 23, 1902 the Seaboard Air Line bought its stock and folded it into a new subsidiary, the Atlanta and Birmingham Air Line Railway. That road opened for freight on December 5, 1904 and for passengers on July 2, 1905, giving the Seaboard its own route from Atlanta to Birmingham. In 1947 the Seaboard launched the Silver Comet, a stainless steel streamliner running New York to Birmingham through Atlanta. Declining passenger and mail revenue killed it in 1969. Freight lingered under CSX until 1989, when the railroad abandoned the miles from Cobb County through Paulding and Polk. The Georgia Department of Transportation bought the roadbed in 1992 and leased it to Cobb County for a non-motorized trail. With the PATH Foundation coordinating, construction began at Smyrna in July 1998, and the first section between Nickajack Creek and Hicks Road opened that November. By 2003 a rider could pedal from Smyrna to the Alabama line, and the trail was fully paved by August 2008.
