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.
Finding new rail things to do for my annual trips to Georgia has become a real struggle as rear placed baggage cars prevent generating content en-route and I have also covered most rail locations of interest within casual driving distance of my friend. For the 2024 visit I used what might have been an otherwise inconvenient knitting group meeting to perform a walking tour of the old Seaboard Coast Line station in Athens, GA. Combined with the typical Washington, DC power changes, Greensboro, NC layover and waiting three hours at Gainesville, GA for the midnight train going Anywhere (station code ANY?), I managed to collect enough content ( mirror ) for an engaging post.
Because Amtrak Carolinian Train 79 does not stop at BWI, I must start my trips with a short hop on MARC to Washington Union Station. Today my mid-morning train seemed to be a B&O set with single level cab car #7761 eventually leading the consist into Washington track #7, the non-electrified, lowest numbered station track typically reserved for Camden and Brunswick line trains. Split level Bombardier cab cars #8047 and #8053 were on the adjacent tracks 8 and 9.
Train 79 arrived behind ACS-86 #664, which was swapped out for P42DC #94.
The next I saw of #94 was during the smoking stop at Richmond Virginia RF&P Station. These engines might be going on 25 years old, but they are currently more reliable than their Siemens Charger replacements.
CSX SD40-2 #8232, SD40-2 #8253 and GP38-2 #2645 were hanging out in Richmond's Acca Yard that day.
Arriving roughly on time at Greensboro I managed to exit the station and run up to the Elm St grade crossing before #94 and T79 departed.
The former Sothern Railway 1899 Greensboro Depot and later Eastern Division HQ appears to have been sold by NS for redevelopment. Meanwhile, Train 79 was being shown an uncommon R/R/G Diverging Clear signal indication for a slower, but not necessary slow speed, secondary route through ELM interlocking.
After last call I caught the tail end of a southbound NS intermodal train at the same Elm St crossing.
That nights southbound Crescent Train 19 was roughly on time with a pair of new ALC-42 Chargers, #343 and #321.
After somehow managing to avoid a Charger breakdown, Train 19 dropped me at Gainesville and proceeded through MIDLAND interlocking on a Diverging Clear signal indication.
The Seaboard Coast Line's Athens Georgia station currently serves as a CSX MoW base for the Abbeville Sub. Athens is home to the University of Georgia and the station probably had more than its fair share of passenger traffic back in the day.
Some nice touches include "Seaboard" cast into the concrete of the road underpass and "Athens" spelled out in white painted concrete letters.
There was a Southern RR station right nearby with some of the track still in place, but I'll have to visit that next time.
Fast forward to Sunday night and I was back at the Amtrak/Southern/NS Gainesville station waiting for the midnight departure. The train used to arrive a bit after 9pm, but three hours of padding was added to the schedule south of Atlanta to help improve on time performance. As was typical a pair of engines, ET44 #3654 and SD40-2 #3379, were tied down at the station for switching the New Holland yard.
As with past years a cut of road power was also present, likely having delivered a regional manifest freight to the local yard from the Atlanta hub. These included ET44 #3661, ES44AC #8128 and ES44 #8007.
Before my northbound Crescent Train 20 arrived with P42DC's #144 and #45, I was treated to a northbound manifest freight with SD60E's #6999 and #6932 and a southbound manifest with a pair of AC44C6M's taking a Diverging Clear signal at MIDLAND interlocking for a move from track 1 to track 2.
Train 20 and engine #144 getting a re-crew at Charlottesville.
After arriving at Washington DC I headed up to watch the power change. A RailVac unit was sitting on the still unfinished Track 22.
While waiting for #144 and #45 to come off T20, Capitol Limited Train 30 arrived with a somewhat shabby P40DC #817. When the passengers were off, the short Train 30 set was shoved towards Ivy City Yard by #817, before Train 20's P42DC's #144 and #45 are pulled off to be replaced by ACS-86 #668. Just after #668 coupled, an afternoon VRE trainset arrives from the yard with MP36PH-3C # V64 leading and gallery cab car #V723 on the rear.
After that concluded a light engine move including Amtrak P42DC's #128 and #79 coupled ahead of MARCC MP36PH-3C #19 and #17, and SC44 #85.
Also on the MARC front, MP36PH-3C #31 was pulling out with a Penn Line train while #15 sat ready to go all while VRE MP36PH-3C #V59 was pulling into a low level berth.
Well that's all for my 2024 Georgia trip, I'll be back next time with a West Jersey Chapter NRHS sponsored trip to Long Branch, NJ via Rahway.
