When presented with the need to travel to Atlanta with in May of 2025 I saw an opportunity to introduce a non-railfan fried to traveling via sleeping car on Amtrak's southbound Crescent Train 19. I am well versed on this route, traveling to see a friend in Gainesville most years, however this time I would be completing the full "northern" half of the Crescent by traveling all the way to Atlanta, a city I had only passed through on a northbound Crescent trip from New Orleans in 2010. This trip didn't present the opportunity for a large amount of photos, but you can see all the ones I did manage here.
The trip started off at the Odenton MARC station as the southbound Crescent did not stop at BWI and Odenton informally allows free overnight parking. Here MARC ML cab car #8049 leads a Penn Line train to Washington, DC.
Passing the VRE storage yard at Ivy City, MP36PH-3C's #V62 and V64 were waiting to head out on their evening return runs.
Our Penn Line train on the non-electrified track #7 next to a lineup of other MARC trains serving the Penn, Camden and Brunswick lines.
The call to Train 19 from the lounge was a bit late and by the time we got down to the platform the power change had already taken place with Amtrak P42DC #158 behind ALC-42 #348.
If you remember VRE #V66 from the yard, well here it is pulling into Track #23 to collect its passengers.
Although I had missed Train 19's power change, I was able to catch the train for northbound Palmetto Train 90. P42DC #114 was replaced by ACS-86 #641 while a classic Acela express, with power cars #2037 and #2006, arrived on upper level Track #20.
With #114 out of the way I was able to get a photo of Amtrak ALC-42s #314 and #365 on the head of Northwestbound Floridian train #40.
This was followed by Veterans ACS-86 #642 with aa southbound Regional train of some kind.
After departure on Train 19, my friend and I were offered an early dinner slot in the "new" Viewliner 2 dining car.
The Crescent isn't the most scenic of Amtrak's LD routes, especially with the 6pm departure out of DC so close to sunset and the 8am arrival in Atlanta so close to Sunrise. The only photo-op available to me was the smoke stop at Charlottesville.
Fast forward and here is Train 19 arriving at Atlanta's Peachtree station.
Formerly a small suburban stop, Peachtree Station is is 633 railroad miles from Washington, DC and became Atlanta's one and only station after the downtown Union Station was closed in 1971. To accommodate the Crescent, the Southern built a long island platform between the two main tracks with an elevator installed for baggage purposes. A two track storage yard is also present for the times when the Crescent needs to be short turned. The Crescent was turned over to Amtrak in 1979 and at 1100 miles is Amtrak's longest Eastern LD train route.
The Crescent essentially serves two markets, Atlanta to DC and Atlanta to New Orleans, with a large part of the ridership turning over at Atlanta. This high turnover creates quite a bit of crowding at Peachtree as the cramped station is not fit for the purpose of serving the passenger rail volumes generated by one of the country's largest metro areas.
Although small, the station's exterior retains its 1918 appearance.
The pointless arrow lives on a sign directing departing passengers to the parking lot. Those arriving in the city either have to make do with an Uber or walk about a half mile to the nearest MARTA station.
Since I had some discounts and credits I chose the Uber option. While we were waiting an southbound NS manifest freight rolled past with C40-10Wn #7605, AC44C6M #4133 and ET44AC #3603.
That's all for the first course. Next week I'll be back with some MARTA action.
