Guys,
This summer I’ll spend two weeks of my vacationin the Atlanta, GA area.
What are the interesting places (yard, busy routes) to visit? I’m especially interested CSX/NS/shortlines.
I’ll also be spending some time driving through Georgia and the Carolinas.
Any interesting shortlines and museum railroads?
Good websites?
Thanks for your assistance.
Cornelius Koelewijn, Netherlands.
The CSX W&A subdivision between Atlanta and Chattanooga (norhwest out of Atlanta) is one of their busiest lines in the system. There are some fantastic spots just outside of Atlanta, especially Acworth, Emerson and Cartersville where you can get excellent access and great scenery. There is also lots of variety with abundant intermodal, automotive, coal, grain and local traffic. I have never waited more than an hour for a train on the W&A and even that is rare.
For the NS, my personal favorite is the Atlanta-Washington mainline that runs northeast out of Atlanta. Once again, there are lots of great spots that give a small-town feel even though you are only 15-20 miles outside the city. Not as busy as the NS line to Chattanooga, but I think the scenery and trackside access in Norcross, Duluth, Suwanee and Buford is unbeatable.
If you can drive about 90 minutes out of town, you can’t railfan in Atlanta without going to Dalton in the northwest part of the state. The CSX W&A sub (discussed above) and the NS Atlanta North district cross here on two at-grade diamonds. These are both very busy lines and you will see a whole bunch of trains in any given period. Lots of great ground level spots are available trackside along with a few overpasses and parking garages to railfan from. Here is a view of this location in FlashEarth:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=34.770087&lon=-84.966596&z=17.9&r=0&src=yh
If you have any specific questions about access to certain locations, feel free to PM me any time. Jamie
There is the Southeastern Railway Museum in the Atlanta area: http://www.srmduluth.org/default.shtml
There is a short, tourist ride around Stone Mtn. Park. http://www.stonemountainpark.com/attractions-shows/attraction-detail.aspx?AttractionID=54
It’s cheesy and the park is expensive - but the park is worth a visit on it’s own.
Railfanning in and around Atlanta:
CSX and NS have large facilities in Atlanta. Both have large yards roughly parallel to each other, just west of downtown. NS’s Inman yard is primarily intermodal and CSX’s Tilford yard is regular classification yard. CSX also has a large intermodal yard just east of downtown and NS has another large intermodal yard on the west side of town in the suburbs of Austell, GA.
CSX and NS have mainlines from various directions that cross right in the middle of Altanta. You can view quite a bit of action from downtown, from an area just north of I-20 to Howell Wye, which is adjacent to Inman and Tilford yards. You can get a good sense of all this by looking at Google maps arial photos.
Train traffic on the mainlines varies. The heaviest traffic would be to from Atlanta to the NW, toward Chattanooga, on both NS and CSX.
In Austell, GA there is a train watching platform. Lot of action there, but not very scenic.
In Manchester, GA, a few hours away, there is train watching platform on CSX.
Chattanooga is a worthwhile destination. It’s a rail hub for both CSX and NS. NS has a sprawling hump yard in the city. The excellent Tenessee Valley RR museum is there, complete with steam train excursion, is also there. http://www.tvrail.com/
Thanks guys!
With your answers I can do a lot of new research for some nice locations.
Thanks again,
Cornelius Koelewijn.