Atlanta area railroad mileposts

Here I reproduce information from the Norfolk Southern and CSX timetables. I have many times wished I had this to pull up on my iphone in a form other than the bulky PDFs this data is from.

Stations marked “not in timetable” represent signals that trains have been observed to call out (“Clear Doraville, NS 203 southbound”) over the scanner. NS generally does not list intermediate signals (between control points) in their timetables, but they may be shown on their track diagrams. Not sure about CSX.

Text in italics is additional commentary, not from timetable.

Norfolk Southern

First, a “British subway map” of these lines. Obviously not to scale.

ns_atl

Alabama Division

Source: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/NS/NS%20ETTs/NS%20AL%20Div%20ETT%20%231%208-4-2008.pdf

East End District

650 AUSTELL
652.9 LITHIA SPRINGS
655.2 BEN HILL
657.3 HBD-DED (Cracker)
658.7 Douglasville
663 HBD-DED (Winston)
664.6 WINSTON
666.6 CARROLL
668.2 BAGGETT
669.5 VILLA RICA
671.6 HBD-DED (Villa Rica)
675.5 TAYLOR
677.5 TEMPLE
680.6 HBD-DED (Morgan)
682.7 SEWELL
685 BREMEN
689 HBD-DED (Waco)
692.7 HUBBARD
695.2 TALLAPOOSA
697.9 HBD-DED (Tallapoosa)
699.9 GA/AL State Line
707.4 HBD-DED (Fruithurst)
708.4 FOSTER
710.4 EDWARDSVILLE
714.1 OWENS
716.3 HEFLIN
718.2 HBD-DED (Cleburne)
727.1 ARDREY
729.1 DEARMANVILLE
730.2 HBD-DED-HWD (Dearmanville)
733.4 LARDENT
735 ANNISTON (Amtrak station)
736.7 LETCHERS
741.6 HBD-DED (Bynum)
741.7 Coldwater Branch
743 BYNUM
746.4 GRAY
751.8 HBD-DED (Lincoln)
754.1 LINCOLN
756.1 EMBRY
758 COOSA
762.9 HBD-DED (Pell City)
767.8 HOLT
769.8 ROBERTS
771.6 HBD-DED (Cook Springs)
776.2 BROMPTON
778.1 COLEMAN
781.8 HBD-DED (Leeds)
781.9 LEEDS
782.7 CENTRAL
783.7 HENRY ELLEN
787.7 LOVICK
790.7 NORRIS JUNCTION (Norris Yard)
791.8 IRONDALE JUNCTION
798.1 32ND STREET
798.2 27TH STREET (Birmingham)

Georgia Division

Source: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/NS/NS%20ETTs/NS%20GA%20Div%20ETT%20%231%208-4-2008.pdf

Atlanta North District

240.0 A DeButts Yard (Chattanooga)
239.8 A WEBB
238.7 A PIERCE
238.2 A CITICO JCT.
237.3 A BROWN
236.6 A SPELL
236.0 A WILLIAMS
235.0 A JERSEY
230.6 A HBD-DED (Summit)
230.5 A SUMMIT
226.6 A/15.2 H OOLTEWAH
18.1 H HBD-DED (Collegedale)
21.7 H LONG
23.6 H GA/TN State Line
25.0 H HBD-DED (Cohutta)
27.0 H COHUTTA
31.5 H VARNELL
36.0 H WARING
36.2 H HBD-DED-HWD (Waring)
37.7 H NORTON
39.9 H N. DALTON
40.1 H HAIR
42.4 H WALNUT
45.1 H HBD-DED (Phelps)
45.2 H PHELPS
47.9 H FREEMAN
53.3 H DAVIS
55.3 H SUGAR VALLEY
58.2 H TALLEY
60.7 H HALL
55.4 H HBD-DED
66.2 H HBD-DED (Plainville)
67.8 H REEVES
69.6 H PINSON
75.1 H BERWIN
75.1 H HBD-DED
77.0 H Forrestville Yard
78.1 H FOX
81.2 H SMITH
83.9 H LINDALE
85.4 H HBD-DED (Silvercreek)
90.1 H BRICE
92.0 H GREEN
95.2 H HBD-DED (Seney)
98.5 H ARAGON
101.4 H OLLIE
102.0 H ROCKMART
105.7 H HBD-DED (Finch)
106.9 H FINCH
112.0 H ROGERS
114.5 H McPHERSON
118.2 H HBD-DED-HWD (Dallas)
121.4 H OAK
123.5 H HIRAM
125.4 H CLARK
128.2 H HBD-DED (Powder Springs)
130.3 H FOSS
131.3 H COWART
131.6 H SHIPP
132.8 H Whitaker Yard
132.9 H HBD-DED (Whitaker Yard)
133.0 H ENGLAND
134.7 H AUSTELL

East End district connects here.

137.2 H LOWE

Near Mableton

140.0 H NICKAJACK
140.7 H HBD-DED (Nickajack)
143.1 H JACKMAC

Visible from Buckner Rd.

Chattahoochee River
BRIDGE (not in timetable)

Accessible via Parrot Avenue.

145.5 H BOLTON
146.7 H FIELDS
146.8 H NORTH INMAN
148.0 H Inman Yard
149.0 H ROCKDALE

Can be seen from Marietta Blvd overpass.

Atlanta South District

149.9 H HOWELL

Behind Bim’s Liquor store/King Plow parking lot. See blog entry.

150.1 H KING PLOW

Visible from Marietta Street overpass / parking lot at end of 10th street.

JEFFERSON STREET (not in timetable)

Street dead-ends at tracks. Frequent crew-change point. Stopped trains visible from Marietta St bridge.

GRINELL (not in timetable)

Between Northside Drive bridge and North Avenue tunnel.

152.4 H SPRING

Visible from Mitchell, Nelson, Peters Streets. See blog entry.

153.? CIRCLE (not in timetable)

Very new signal sign just south of Peters St.

154.2 H WELLS

Across McDaniel Street from South Yard

154.6 H SOUTH YARD

Nearly-abandoned yard on McDaniel St, home to Pegram Shops and the Walking Dead’s “Terminus”.

155.4 H HENDERSON

University Ave/Hank Aaron Drive

158.8 H CONSTITUTION

Fayetteville Rd. and Old Constitution Rd.

158.8 H HBD-DED
162.5 H NORTH CONLEY

Moreland Ave (US 23) and E. Conley Rd.

164.5 H PLESS
165.7 H HBD-DED (Ellenwood)
171.5 H STOCKBRIDGE
173.7 H TUNIS (Flippen)
181.5 H McDONOUGH
183.5 H GROVE
187.4 H HBD-DED-HWD (Locust Grove)
193.0 H JENKINSBURG
195.0 H BUNCH
198.0 H HBD-DED (Jackson)
203.0 H FLOVILLA
205.2 H SANDY
208.0 H HBD-DED (Cork)
215.0 H BERNER
216.8 H JULIETTE
218.8 H SCHERER
222.5 H HBD-DED (Dames Ferry)
225.0 H GRUBBS
230.1 H DAMES
232.3 H ARKWRIGHT
233.7 H HBD-DED-HCD
239.1 H NORTH MACON
240.5 H MACON JCT.
242.0 H BROSNAN YARD

Griffin District

Ex-Central of Georgia. Shared with CSX to East Point.

S 294.3 SPRING
S 291.5 OAKLAND JCT.

Murphy Ave, near the Cut Rate Box Company building. Old A&WP belt line connects here.

S 290.0 TILLMAN
S 288.8 INDUSTRY YARD

Most of yard can be seen from Harold Sheets Pkwy.

S 288.2 EAST POINT

Near pedestrian bridge and MARTA. CSX leaves onto its own tracks.

S 286.4 HAPEVILLE

Sylvan Rd. crossing.

S 283.7 MOUNTAIN VIEW

Along Old Dixie Hwy. between I-75 and I-285.

S 282.2 FOREST PARK

Main St. and Hale Rd, at south end of yard.

S 280.1 LEE

Along Metcalf Rd. in Lake City.

S 277.8 MORROW
S 274.7 HBD (North Jonesboro)
S 273.4 JONESBORO
S 251.0 GRIFFIN
S 233.6 BARNESVILLE
S 223.5 COLLIER
S 221.1 HBD
S 217.0 FORSYTH
S 212.9 SMARR
S 206.1 HBD-DED (Bolingbrooke)
H 192.1 EDGEWOOD
H 197.0 RUTLAND JCT.

Piedmont Division

Source: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/NS/NS%20ETTs/NS%20Piedmont%20Div%20ETT%20%231%208-4-2008.pdf

Greenville District

484.1 Greenville (Amtrak station)
484.5 SOUTH GREENVILLE
486.5 FALLIS
489.2 CROSSWELL
492.5 HBD (Lathem)
493.6 HAYWOOD
498.5 METLER
504.1 TRABER
504.2 HBD (Traber)
508 JOHNSON
511.9 ROWLAND
513.7 HBD (Clemson)
514.2 Clemson
517 KEOWEE
519.6 COURTENAY
521.9 HBD (Seneca)
525.6 CHENEY
526.1 HBD (Cheney)
530.2 JASON
533.8 HUNTER
539.2 HBD-HWD (Madison)
542.1 TUGALO
545 PARK
547.3 TOCCOA (Amtrak station)
552 AYERSVILLE
552.4 HBD (Ayersville)
558 MT. AIRY
562 BALDWIN
564.1 HBD (Alto)
569.1 YONAH
572.5? Downtown Lula. Branch line to Athens connects to main line.
574 CAGLE
575.1 HBD (Cagle)
581.1 RED LANE

North of White Sulpur Rd. crossing.

584.6 Gainesville (Amtrak station)
585 MIDLAND

Junction with CSX Gainesville Midland sub

588 CHICOPEE
588.6 HBD (Oakwood)
592.3 GRIF

Near HF Reed Industrial Park Conn. bridge.

594.8 ALLEN

Near Flowery Branch

598.2 HBD (Walters)
599.8 WALTERS

Downtown Buford near Train Master model train store

605.2 SHADOW BROOK
611 HBD (Duluth)
612.7 DULUTH
615 CAROLINA

Between North and South Berkley Lake Roads.

619 NORCROSS

North-facing visible from Rowan Street / Stephens Rd crossing (near RockTenn).

619 HBD (Norcross)
621.4 RAY

Visible from Oakcliff Rd. bridge and from Bankers Industrial Dr.

622.7 (?) DORAVILLE (not in timetable)

Next to gravel truck parking lot on New Peachtree Rd, across from Marathon fuel terminal.

624.5 CHAMBLEE

Next to Peachtree St in downtown Chamblee

626.3 GOODWIN

Near Redding Rd

626.6 HBD (Goodwin)
630.9 FOREMOST

Near Piedmont Rd.

632.5 ARMOUR
633.3 ATLANTA (Amtrak station)
MECASLIN ST (not in timetable)

Grade crossing behind Atlantic Station Target, road is only access to Narjoe Lumber Co.

634.8 BIRMONT

Visible from Westside Provisions District, and from end of Foster Street by Goat Farm arts center.

CSX
635 HOWELL
148.0 H INMAN YARD

CSX

Atlanta Division

Source: http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/CSX/CSX%20ETTs/CSX%20Atlanta%20Div%20ETT%20%233%201-1-2005.pdf

Work in progress… CSX timetable not as easy to cut and paste from as NS!

A&WP Subdivision

Abbeville Subdivision

Atlanta Terminal Subdivision

csx_atl_term

“Chart A”

WA 22.4 N ELIZABETH
WA 22.2 ELIZABETH

GNRR/Patriot Rail connection.

WA 21.2 SE EAST SIDING
WA 20.4 MARIETTA DEPOT
WA 19.5 BUTLER STREET
WA 17.6 LOCKAIR
WA 15.0 SMYRNA DEPOT
WA 13.1 SMYRNA
WA 12.5 I-285
WA 11.2 VININGS (HB-DED)
WA 7.9 OVERMYER
WA 7.5 JAC MAC LEAD
Chattahoochee River

WA 7.4

GILSTRAP

WA 6.6

BOLTON

WA 5.9

4700

WA 5.1

RAILPLANT

WA 4.9

TILFORD

Near Marietta Street bridge.

WA 4.7

PINE STREET

WA 3.8

TOP OF SLIDE

Visible from Marietta Blvd bridge.

WA 2.9

HOWELL TOWER

Behind Bim’s Liquor store/King Plow parking lot.

NS

WA 2.7

TENTH STREET

Street ends in parking lot at the tracks.

NS

WA 1.3

JONES AVENUE

The original name of Ivan Allen Jr Blvd.

WA 0.8

THURMOND STREET

WA 0.0

CIRCLE CONNECTION

Where Fairlie Street dead-ends into a pay parking lot. This is the “zero milepost”, although the actual historic milepost marker is slightly to the east, in an underground building.

YYG 170.0

BOULEVARD YARD

YYH 169.5

HULSEY YARD

YYG 168.5

HURT STREET

YYG 168.1

LAFRANCE STREET

YYG 167.2

PIE HOUSE

YYG 166.8

HOWARD STREET

YYG 165.9

KIRKWOOD

This is where Inman Park Belt (chart D) branches off.

YYG 164.8

DECATUR

YYG 162.5

SCOTTDALE

YYG 162.4

DTC BLOCK SIGN

YYG 157.7

PATILLO SPUR

YYG 155.2

NE STONE MOUNTAIN

YYG 154.5

DTC BLOCK SIGN

YYG 154.4

SE STONE MOUNTAIN
YYG 152.9 HB-DED

YYG 149.0

LITHONIA

“Chart B”

SG 559.0 TUCKER HOLDOUT
SG 561.0 TUCKER
SG 563.5 SE TUCKER
SG 567.5 BELT JUNCTION

Where the Inman Park belt joins (chart E).

SG 567.9 NE EMORY
SG 568.8 SE EMORY
SG 570.9 LENOX RD
MARTA
SG 572.0 MINA
NS
SG 574.0 EAST SWITCH
SG 574.7 EAST WYE
SG 575.0 HOWELLS YARD

Old SAL to Birmingham begins here.

SG 575.1 SOUTH WYE
SG 575.3 HUFF ROAD
TO TOP OF SLIDE, HOWELL TOWER

“Chart C”

WA 4.9/ANB 865.0 TILFORD
WA 4.7 PINE STREET
ANB 864.9 T.V.
ANB 864.8 SOUTH TILFORD
NORTH TUNNEL (UNDER CHART A)
SOUTH TUNNEL (UNDER NS)
ANB 862.8 BELLWOOD LEAD

Near intersection of Jefferson St. and Marietta Blvd. Goes to Bellwood yard.

ANB 862.4 SOUTH BELLWOOD

South of Joseph E. Boone, towards Andrews St.

ANB 861.8 CHAPPELL ROAD
ANB 859.7 GASCO

Where the tracks are running alongside I-20.

I-20
ANB 858.4 STRATFORD

Along MLK blvd.

I-285
ANB 855.6 FULCO JUNCTION

Near Cascade Rd.

ANB 853.9 NE BEN HILL

Between Melvin Dr. and Campbelton Rd.

ANB 853.7 BEN HILL
ANB 852.8 SE BEN HILL

Along Daniel Rd.

ANB 848.0 ACKERMAN

Near S. Fulton Pkwy

ANB 846.9 ??? tunnel under A&WP tracks
ANB 846.1 VAUGHN
ANB 845.0 NE UNION CITY
ANB 844.0 STONEWALL

MP 844 is next to the park in downtown Union City.

ANB 843.7 SE UNION CITY
ANB 842.6 DOGHOUSE

Nestle/Purina dog food factory.

ANB 836.9 HANSON
ANB 835.6 NE TYRONE
ANB 835.3 TYRONE
ANB 834.8 SE TYRONE
ANB 833.0 ROCK SPUR
ANB 828.1 NE PEACHTREE CITY
ANB 826.9 SE PEACHTREE CITY

“Chart D”

Shared with NS from Spring to East Point.

WA 1.0 JONES AVENUE
S 294.3 SPRING (NS)
S 293.8 PETERS ST (NS)
S 291.5 OAKLAND JCT (NS)
XXC 5.2 A&WP BELT LINE
S 290.0 TILLMAN (NS)
S 288.8 INDUSTRY YARD (NS)
XXB 6.4/S 228.2 EAST POINT
XXB 8.4 COLLEGE PK DEPOT
XXB 9.3 NE COLLEGE PK STORAGE
XXB 10.0 COLLEGE PK
XXB 10.8 SE COLLEGE PK STORAGE
XXB 12.4 NE RED OAK
XXB 13.4 RED OAK
XXB 15.5 SE RED OAK
XXB 15.5 VAUGHN
XXB 16.2 MIXON
XXB 16.4 STONEWALL

“Chart E”

SGB 567.1 BELT JUNCTION
SG 567.5
SGB 569.6 EAST LAKE DRIVE
SGB 569.9
YYG 166.5 KIRKWOOD

Etowah Subdivision

Georgia Subvision

Manchester Subdivision

W&A Subdivision

Howell Wye? More like Howell Weeds

One of the constant elements of southeastern railfanning is kudzu, sumac, honeysuckle, wisteria – you know, weeds. As summer turns to fall, we have one last chance to appreciate all that luscious green foliage.

Trains sneak out of the underbrush like wild animals.

DSC_0236a

In a few months this will all be gray and brown.

DSC_0210a

By the way, Pokeweed was traditionally used as a source of food in the South and in Appalachia even though it is toxic. I guess our ancestors would rather risk being poisoned by their food than not having any at all.

Sumac, visible in most of these shots, has some species that are used as flavorings (such as for tea), but I wouldn’t try it with this wild stuff.

Edit: this is probably Rhus glabra, smooth sumac. It is supposed to be edible, although it is not the same species cultivated for tea.

DSC_0203a

Kudzu leaves are edible as well but in the South you never know that the kudzu you pick wasn’t sprayed with something nasty in an unsuccessful attempt to kill it.

DSC_0250a

All these plants attract bees and wasps, which were buzzing around during these shots, although it was kind of hard to hear them over the trains.

Link: Flickr album with more of this

The first arbitrary award for train-watcher friendly architecture 

..goes to Westside Provisions District.

When they redeveloped this property – which happens to span both sides of the NS Piedmont division right at Birmont Junction (the northeast corner of the Howell Wye area) – back in the 2000s they could have hidden the tracks away. They had all kinds of ways in which they could have fucked it up.

But instead they put a camera-friendly pedestrian bridge over the tracks right in the middle of their shopping center.

And on both sides of the bridge, the tenants are restaurants with patio areas facing the tracks.









Atlanta Railfan Locations: Top o’ the Slide 

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

Till I get to the bottom and I see you again

The “top of the slide” is the CSX timetable name for the signal and control point at the south-eastern end of Tilford Yard. It is shortly west of “Howell Tower”. (Scare quotes because there is no actual tower there..)

I am not certain if “slide” refers to the Tilford Yard hump itself or to the corkscrew-ish loop that connects the main with the line that tunnels under it.

This location is clearly visible from the Marietta Boulevard bridge. NOTE: Marietta Boulvard is a separate from (but related to)  Marietta Road and Marieeta Street. Be aware this is a very busy bridge, and getting from one side of it to the other will put your jaywalking skills to a Frogger worthy test.

Your best bet for parking is probably on Huff Road. You might also find some on Marietta Street. There is no parking on the Marietta Blvd bridge itself.

The bridge also crosses the south-eastern extremity of NS Inman Yard. This is the northernmost bridge that crosses both railroads in a single span. 

You don’t see most of either yard from this bridge, especially not Tilford, so it should mainly be considered a location for seeing through trains as opposed to yard operations.

It is probably the best place from which to observe CSX trains going from Tilford to the Abbeville Sub and vice versa.

You will also be able to see, somewhat in the distance, trains coming into Tilford off the Manchester line. These trains tunnel under both NS and CSX.

The NS control points you can see from up on the bridge are Rockdale to the west and Howell Wye to the east. Rockdale is pretty much located on top of the tunnel.

CSX looking at the “top of the slide” signal:



CSX looking towards Howell Tower:



NS looking towards Inman Yard and the Rockdale signal. The train in the first photo is on the main line, the train in the second is on yard tracks.





NS looking toward Howell Wye:



A side view showing the CSX tunnel under the NS. This is taken from Marietta Road:




Atlanta Railfan Locations: Spring, South

This is very close to the first location discussed in this series of posts, and could be considered more or less the same location on the railroad.

South of the Peters Street overpass, the tracks exit the Gulch and emerge into the south side of Atlanta as a street-level line with occasional grade crossings (there are very few public grade crossings north of the gulch and inside 285).

The Railside Dog Park is a convenient location to access the tracks at this point. Located almost in the shadow of the Peters St. bridge (on sunny days you will wish it actually was in the shadow!) at the end of dead-end Castleberry St.  Outside of the dog fence you can walk up and down the tracks for some length.

(This dog park is unrelated to the CSX timetable station known as “Doghouse”. That refers to a Purina dog food factory)

Located across the tracks is Gourmet Foods International. It’s not as nice as the dog park, being a gravel parking lot with frequent coming and going of semi trailers.

There is no fence for the tracks here, and neigbhorfood residents and assorted vagrants cross the tracks on foot very frequently. So if you decide to just cross the tracks to get a different angle instead of going all the way up over the bridge, it’s not like you’re remotely the first to do so. It’s still trespassing of course.

This is just north of where the NS ex-Southern main line goes under the line shared by NS (ex-Central of Georgia) and CSX (West Point Route) and diverges off. That means it is the southernmost place to see the trains from all three of those lines. The actual crossover is near McDaniel Street.

The Central is the original railroad here, being the Civil War era Macon and Western.

The view north (of southbound trains) has pretty much the whole Atlanta skyline behind it.

The view south is less impressive but at least there’s this cool old water tower (seen from the dog park side):

From the other side, we heard you liek U-haul..

Atlanta Railfan Locations: Spilling the Beans on Howell

I actually hesitated to get to specific about where I was sitting when watching trains here for a while, because I’m still not entirely sure if you are supposed to be there or not. Whatever. Only my friends read this blog (and probably not even most of them), and I’ve already admitted to creeping around on property that was closed off due to “terrorism” threats..

First, a map. To find this area on Google maps, use these directions. Click on this image here to expand this map.

Now, this map shows several ways you can observe trains in this area, which I will explain here in no particular order.

  • Marietta Street Bridge – you will need to park somewhere near the bridge, and walk to it. There are times when such parking will be difficult to find. It provides an overhead view of both railroads’ lines headed downtown.
  • Foster Street – the street crosses the NS tracks and ends. There’s not a clear indication of where the street technically ends and where the railroads’ access roads begin. The crossing of NS is marked with a crossbuck as seen on all public road crossings. I’m fairly certain once you get to the CSX tracks, it’s railroad property. The area in between, seems like it would have to be either NS or CSX property. I have sat parked here without being run off, but YMMV.
  • 10th Street – there is a parking lot at the end of the street that never has any vehicles parked in it. There are “no parking/tow away” signs, but it seems to be fine for sitting in or near the car and observing trains. You are right next to the CSX. I have no idea whose parking lot this is. There is a chainlink fence between the parking lot and the tracks, but the gate is normally open and used by the railroads.
  • King Plow Parking Lot – this provides a view of the area where the two railroads’ wyes are closest to each other. There is a guard tower in this lot and a sign saying it is for King Plow use only, but I have never been messed with while parking here and sitting in the car to watch trains. You will be watching trains through a fence though. From here you can see the NS basically right across the fence, and CSX a little ways beyond that.
  • Bim’s Liqour Store – they clearly understand that their customers want to sit out behind the store by the tracks, because there is a picnic table back there and everything.  So if you are not the kind of person who is bothered by the idea of hanging out at a liquor store, this is a good place to watch trains. Buy something from the store since you are on their property after all.
  • Ye Olde Hole in the Fence – this is “it”. This provides basically the same view as the King Plow Parking lot, only you are now on the track side of the fence. The legality of this is… uncertain, but railfans go back there all the time just judging by the amount of photos and videos you see taken from back there. To get here, walk to the northeast corner of the parking lot of the vacant building to the east of Bim’s, which I believe was once a porn shop. There is a break in the fence right at the corner, that you can go through and make your way along a dirt path worn between the tracks and the fence. There is no picnic table, but there are some cinder blocks that can be used for sitting. I suggest bringing your own portable chair.

Now, some photos.

BNSF run-powered coal train on NS, I think train 734 or maybe 732, seen from the area behind the liquor store:

Now, about that hole in the fence. Recyled from an earlier post, this is what the hole itself looks like from the “beyond the fence” side:

IMG_5929.JPG

These are the cinder blocks mentioned:

IMG_5937.JPG

From back there you can clearly see one of the diamonds where the NS crosses the CSX main line:

IMG_5942.JPG

Here’s a pic of a train going through that diamond:

Just Gulch Things

This is the main area of the gulch, the biggest open-to-the-sky piece of ground in downtown Atlanta. As you can see it is currently a parking lot.



This area is directly in the middle of the triangle formed by the railroads at the center of Atlanta. In former times this would have been a tangle of yard tracks.

You would never know it but this is also on the Eastern Continental Divide.

Lots of people have ideas about what to do with this space. The Multimodal Passenger Terminal, if ever built, would use this space. There are also various plans to built elevated parks/plazas over the top of all this, up at the level where the viaducts run.

As it is, this space serves the city mainly as a place for tailgating during Falcons games.

These next are some pictures of the area between the Spring and Forsyth viaducts. Fairlie street runs into this parking lot from the north and ends. Cars frequently turn down Fairlie and then turn around once they realize it doesn’t go anywhere.







The two sets of tracks that split here form two sides of the “triangle”. This is one of the vertices. It is the only one that has a grade crossing that is still open to cars in modern times directly at the point of the triangle. It is also much simpler than the other corners, there being only two tracks here that have not been abandoned.

Formerly this was the location of Union Station, and the trackage would have been more complex. You can see unused rails in the dirt.

This connection called “circle Jubction” is the current mile zero of  CSX’s Western and Alantic subdivision. The historical “zero milepost” is located slightly east inside a building. I believe it was the post that moved, not the railroad.

Another notable thing, you can actually drive beside trains for a few blocks through the underground parking decks to the east of here, without having to pay to park. You would be driving (I think) on the original alignment of Wall Street (with the modern street directly overhead) and you will pass under the intersection with Peachtree. You should try that once before they do something to mess it up.

Atlanta railfan locations: King Plow

Mr. Plow is a loser and I think he is a boozer, so you better make that call to the Plow King.

King Plow refers both to the King Plow Arts Center and to the NS control point located next to it.

The parking lots of the arts center are ok places to watch trains from, particularly the most northwestern one because it is the only one that is free to park in. I don’t have any photos to post from these parking lots because the fence ruins them, mostly. 

If you feel like getting out your car and walking around you will get much better views from the Marietta Street overpass.

I suggest getting there in the morning if you want to snag a parking space on the street near the bridge. This is a very busy part of town now that it is gentrified.

When looking north, you are looking at part of the large confusing interchange of NS and CSX tracks that is Howell Junction. You can’t see all of it from here. There is no one place to see all of it from. You can see different sides from the aforementioned parking lot, and from the end of Foster Street near the Goat Farm.

(At Foster Street you will be tempted to drive into the middle of the tracks and just park and wait for trains to go by. I have done this without incident, but not particularly lately. I’ve read it is a good way to run afoul of the railroad police. I wash my hands of the matter)

Here are a couple of southbound trains seen from the overpass. One of the two tiny buildings to the left of the tracks bears the actual green “King Plow” sign. Can you see it?



Looking south from here, trains have the downtown Atlanta skyline behind them:



Atlanta railfanning locations, part 1: Spring

Those of you who remember me as a foamer in college would be surprised at this, but I’ve been quite lax in the train watching hobby for a while. The last time, until recently, that I regularly out with a scanner looking for trains was in the early 2000s when I worked in midtown. With basically no economic development west of the Connector back then to create traffic, I would use my lunch break to zip over to Inman and Tilford yards, Howell junction, the Marietta artery, sometimes all the way downtown. Or all the way west to the Chattahoochee.

I moved locations, I got busy with other stuff, I gave my last scanner away to some wacky college kids (ahem).

Only in 2014, when I started to make the trek to public outdoor shooting ranges (a subject for a different post) and subsequently started exploring the lesser known rural highways of Georgia did I feel the rails calling again.

So in 2015 I have purchased a new scanner and am refamiliarizing myself with where one can get close to the tracks. This is not always easy in a city that grows as rapidly as Atlanta.

Locations where you can get a good view of trains, with nearby parking, and without having to trespass (much) are not as common as one would like. So this is a series of posts describing places to see trains.

If anything below is incorrect, please someone point it out.

Before beginning, here is a general overview of the Atlanta area so I don’t have to write one myself.


Spring Street Norfolk Southern Building and surroundings

The former Southern Railway building (actually collection of interconnected buildings) downtown on Spring Street has been vacated since the mid-2000s, when Norfolk Southern moved their Atlanta offices to midtown on Peachtree Street. As far as I am aware it has not been sold and is still owned by the railroad, although one of the entrances I saw has the Atlanta police logo on it, I do not believe it is actually owned by the city.

The building has been used as a filming location for The Walking Dead. The bridge that crosses the tracks here is the bridge that Rick rode over on horseback in the first (or a very early) episode. The roof of one of the buildings was the setting for some important scenes early in the first season. I have not watched the show past the 2nd season so I do not know if they returned here or not. There is a nearby tour bus business called “Atlanta movie tours” that I think is focused on TWD fandom.

The nominal location for at least one NS building is “125 Spring Street Southwest, 30303“.

There are parking spaces in front of the building itself, but they bear prominent “you gonna get towed” signs. I am not sure how long you could get away with ignoring them. There is pay parking across Spring Street,  but it is probably not worth it.

Nelson Street passes through the buildings, and crosses the railroad tracks behind on an elevated overpass. This overpass has been relegated to pedestrian only traffic, and when you walk on it you will immediately see why, the pavement is in bad shape and there are cracks that you can see through all the way down. You should probably be able to find free on-street parking on the other side of the bridge.. unless there is a major event going on at Phillips Arena or the Georgia Dome, in which case you are just screwed for parking and you should go watch trains someplace else.

A good location to plug into Apple/Google mapping apps to get directions to a street you might actually be able park on is Smoke Ring BBQ, at 309 Nelson St SW, 30313.

Three MARTA stations are nearby, as seen on the map. The Garnett Station formerly announced “Norfolk Southern” was one of the destinations at that stop.

Both NS and CSX trains pass by here. This location is marked as “Spring” in both the NS and CSX employee timetables. Atlanta is too complex to have a single bottleneck point for all trains, but this spot sees a lot of them. Here is a sloppily annotated and somewhat inaccurate map that I made showing the major rail lines in the immediate vicinity:


The first photo here is a view of the “back” of the building from across the railroad tracks. The bridge shown is the pedestrian Nelson Street.

The area between is the southernmost extremity of Atlanta’s infamous Railroad Gulch. The portion shown here may be the only part of the gulch that is not paved, the rest being mostly parking lots. (There will be a post in the near future focusing on the gulch and Underground Atlanta area from a rail perspective)

The small building down in the gulch next to the tracks is the Spring Interlocking Tower. This is one of very few remaining such towers anywhere, and almost certainly the only one in the metro area.

I think the two tracks nearest the camera here are Norfolk Southern and two beyond are used by both NS and CSX (I believe owned by NS).

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This is the front entrance to 125 Spring Street, showing both the “Southern Railway” name and the aforementioned “Atlanta Police”.

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This is taken from the Mitchell Street bridge which runs just north of the complex, which unlike Nelson is open to vehicular traffic. This train was idling here the entire time I was there. The cars are from the Federal Railway Agency.

The structure behind the train that looks like a passenger platform is exactly that, a reminder of the long-demolished Terminal Station. Here, not the current Amtrak station on Peachtree, is where Southern operated its intercity passenger trains.

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This was a CSX power move of two locos that came down from the direction of Hulsey Yard (the bridge it is emerging from under is Mitchell Street) and then sat idling the rest of the time I was there.

The tall white building on the right is the Richard B. Russell Federal Building. In the parking deck under it there are spaces marked “FBI Parking Only”, and a scary number of vehicles labelled with various other three-letter government agencies.

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These photos show a soundbound CSX train as it passes under the Nelson Street bridge. The first is looking north, the second looking south. Note the two locos sitting to the right in the 2nd photo.

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This is an NS train, seen from the other side of the gulch.

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These next photos are taken down in the gulch. I was able to get down there by driving through the Phillips Arena parking lot. The first photo shows the crossing of a CSX line (the same line that the two locomotives were on) that is inside the parking area, which I found notable because of the lack of “railroad crossing” signs (even the normal “private railroad crossing” usually seen). The other two are of the tower.

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