Eastern Railroad Discussion > Big Mac Attack in Georgia

Hey all, the train gods smiled upon us southerners these past two days giving us plenty of good trains to photograph.

It started off Sunday morning, 11/9/14, with a pair of CSX W trains running back to back on CSX's W&A sub in north Georgia. Running first was a W012-05 welded rail train with a slug set in fresh YN3.5 paint. Following not far behind was a W959-08 tie train with CSX SD80MAC #4590 'Spirit of Benning' as sole power. The weather was beautiful so I set out to grab some shots. After I finished with those two, I decided to check out the yards in Atlanta as I was not far. As I pull up I see a trio of standard cab SD's lugging a train out of Tilford. I pursue this Q611 through Atlanta and break off the short chase at East Point. On my way back I decide to wait at McDaniel Street for NS local job P26 as it runs in the mid to late afternoons on Sundays. After waiting half an hour I start hearing the hum of EMD's. P26 rounds the curve with a chopped high hood SD40-2 leading an ex Conrail SD40-2 & NS 70M sounding real nice.

As I'm on my way into work this morning, 11/10/14, I get a call from a friend telling me that NS #125 has CP SD9043MAC #9142 leading a BNSF & Ferromex. Luckily there wasn't much going on work wise for me so I was able to take half a day and zip up to Cohutta,GA and chase this awesome 'NAFTA' lashup south for a little ways before dark. NS was having the recently normal problems on the North End so everything was running slow, late and autorouter didn't help one bit. I knew if I wanted this train I would have to go to it as it would have been well past dark for the normal spots I shoot at.

Here are the results:

Picture 1 - CSX welded rail train W012-05 passes National Cement on the W&A sub south of Acworth,GA with a slug set working hard up the grade.

Picture 2 - CSX SD80MAC #4590 'Spirit of Benning' makes short work of the grade on tie train W959-08 into Kennesaw,GA while Q210 holds the number one main.

Picture 3 - W959-08 comes onto double track at Elizabeth just north of Marietta,GA.

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Picture 4 - Q611-09 using trackage rights over Norfolk Southerns ex CofG 'Griffin District' passing by CP Spring on its way to Montgomery. CSXT SD50-2 #8507, CSXT SD40-2 #8111 & CSXT SD40-3 #4023 make up the all standard cab EMD consist.

Picture 5 - Q611 notches up onto home rails of the A&WP sub at East Point,GA leaving NS's Griffin District behind.

Picture 6 - P26 dogging it at McDaniel Street with a trio of good sounding EMD's and a lengthy train for East Point.

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Picture 7 - NS manifest #125 (Knoxville,TN - Macon,GA) comes off the Cohutta District in Cohutta,GA to join the Atlanta North District with a cool 'NAFTA' lashup.

Picture 8 - CP SD9043MAC #9142 (one of three in service), BNSF ES44DC #7809 & FXE SD70ACe #4084 make up the consist of NS #125 cruising south of the south side of Dalton,GA.

Picture 9 - NS #125 passes by CP Davis just north of Sugar Valley,GA in the last light of the day while the old Southern signal bridge still stands guard.

Thanks for looking!

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Fantastic shots and I really love the second one, very nice!


Jay

These are all great pics, thanks for posting

Really nice stuff!

Danny Harmon
Tampa

What a great series of photos!

RAD

GREAT set of pics!!! Thanks for posting.

Excellent work.
John

WOW!!!! Sweet photos! Thanks for sharing!

Somedays it just all comes together! Nice series.
Mark Mautner