Last year on a trip to Georgia, my wife’s relatives drove us to Stone Mountain. We drove south from Atlanta. We got off of the interstate ((I -16)) and drove east, then south on a road that leads directly into the town of Stone Mountain (not the mountain itself).
To my delight, the road paralleled a rail line. We passed a yard with plenty of freight cars in it… As we continued south and the small town of Stone Mountain loomed up ahead, I looked on my left (east) and saw a signal bridge and paved dirt about 300 ft. away. This looked like a multi-track mainline that was ripped up not too many years ago. There appeared to be some piles of ties or rails. Sad sight for any railfan!
My best guess is that it must of branched off of the line that runs into the town of Stone Mountain. In the town I saw that the former passenger train station was now the Police Station. [sigh][sigh].
Can anyone tell me a little of the history of this railine as well as the line that branched off of it? I’m assuming it must have been the Southern Railway or the Central of Georgia.
I am really confused by your geography. I-16 runs from Macon to Savannah. Macon is about 70 miles south of Atlanta. You can’t get to Stone Mtn by going south from I-16. Stone Mtn is ENE from Atlanta and is North of I-20.
If you are talking about the RR that goes thru the town of Stone Mtn., then that is the old Georgia Road, a pre-civil war railroad that is now part of CSX. There is a branch to the north from the village to the park. They ran excursion trains from Atlanta to the park in the 80s and early 90s via the connection. It’s also the park RR’s connection to the outside world. Not sure if that’s what you’re talking about or not.
As Don stated above, the only railroad it could be is CSX’s former Georgia Railroad Atlanta to Augusta main. This line is a main link in CSX’s Savannah to Atlanta route for container traffic and is very much active.
If you traveled on I-85 you could go south to Stone Mtn and Ponce De Leon Ave would put the railroad on your right or you could have gone on I-20 to Panola Road, traveled north to Stone Mtn, and the railroad would be on your left.
My apologies! This was my first time going to the western side of Georgia. Gentlemen both of you are right on the mark! We traveled on 1-85 ( I guess I-16 was stuck in my head from an earlier trip to Macon!)
Olttmand,
The ripped up rail line that I saw was just north of the town. The line ran eastward into some woods. Could this be the line that ran to the park itself?
The train ride around the mountain was in service. The locomotives present were a green high nosed GP9 or GP18 and there was also an F7 or FP7 on the property.
We rode the train on steel open side cars. Similar to what you would see on the Disney Railroad excepet these were full sized. The GP did the pulling. Was sad that I didn’t get to see the “F unit” in action!
We went completely around the mountain. Enjoyable trip.