Atlanta Terminal Tour

Howell Wye

Howell Wye is the heart of Atlanta railroading, the sheer amount and complexity of trackage is amazing on its own. Here the NS Piedmont division, the Griffin Division, the South District and CSX’s Atlanta terminal and Abbeville Sub all intersect. Howell Wye is a bit of a incorrect name for the location as there are really two wyes and a diamond. The west wye is controlled by CSX and is their route from the Terminal sub to the Abbeville Sub. The eastern wye connects the NS Piedmont Division with the South District and the Griffin Division. In the middle of the two wyes the Piedmont Division crosses the CSX Atlanta terminal on a double track diamond. With all this track this must be a good place to railfan right?

Well yes and no. For sheer train frequency you will generally do very well here, the bad part is that there are few good places to watch from. Up till the the early 1990’s, CSX had a manned tower in the middle of the wye’s, but that is now gone, back then you could stand in the middle by the tower and have a view of everything, in addition all the brush was kept low to keep the lines of sight to the tower open. Today the tower is gone, and there are trees, brush and all kinds of obstructing objects filling the center of the wye. In addition railfans are no longer tolerated at the Wye so you can no longer just stand in th center and watch.

Below are the places that you can still watch from, but im tempted to suggest that you should get your one shot here and then move on to a better spot.

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King Plow Arts Center

The King Plow manufactured, you guessesed it, plows at its factory off West Marietta St. The buildings were constructed in the 1930’s and are very interesting themselves. Traditional farming implements were no longer in heavy demand by 1986 and the company closed down after 84 years of manufacturing on site. In the early 1990’s the buildings were renovated for use as artist stuidios and a variety of other functions. The renovations have greatly improved the viability of the area in general and as such this is one of the safer places to watch the action at Howell.

The bad news; you will be shooting through a chain fence from the back of a parking lot. If you have a pickup it may not be as much of a issue. The shots are fairly mediocre for the most part, with lots of poles and wires in the way and in the summer the shrubbery can be a issue. The best shot is of Piedmont trains crossing the diamond, with a Telephoto lens you can get quite a good shot especially in winter. You can get a fairly good shot of CSX northbounds crossing the diamonds and views of southbounds are decent. NS south and Griffin District trains are another matter though, you can get a fairly good shot of northbounds but for southbounds forget about getting anything besides closely cropped roster shots. The lighting here is best in the evening as during the mornings to afternoon everything will be backlit.

Porn Shop hole in the fence

You must be in a nice area if your railfanning behind a porno joint. Actally the the shop is right by the King Plow parking lot, one of those sketchy looking places with no windows and minimal signage out front, im not sure if its even open anymore. Anyways at the back of the parking lot there is a whole in the fence used by the urban outdoorsman to reach the tracks. I dont recommend hanging around back here but if you got something good coming and want a shot, this will do the trick, click and leave.

Foster St.

Foster Street was once the access road to the center of the Wye. It still is but its inadvisable to cross the tracks there anymore. Today this is a location only for Piedmont Division trains, you can park on the north side of the tracks but its not recommended to wait their for long as the railroad seems less and less tolerant of fans here.Light is good for southbounds in the evenings but shadows are a issue.

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West Marrieta St overpass

The West Marrieta St. overpass is probably the best place at the Howell Wye area for photos. In the morning it is a good place to shoot southbounds as they will have full side and nose light and you can get the wye and signals in the shot.  The best shot at this location though is on summer evenings  when you can get a northbound with the Atlanta skyline in the background. Though this still isnt the best part of town its getting better, just use common sense and be discreet.

Brickworks

This location is relatively new, only made possible by the redevelopment of Marietta St that has happened lately. The area, now known as Midtown west was once a primarily industrial area but by the late 80’s had fallen into decline with many buildings abandoned and falling apart. Back then it wouldve been inadvisable to walk through this area especially alone, but today its actually one of the nicer parts of town. The Brickworks is a new development partly a restored warehouse and part new construction, streetside parking is not easy to find here so an ingenious solution was implemented, put the parking lot on the roof!  This deck happens to face the Terminal Sub tracks, which makes it a great place to watch trains.

Well watching, taking pictures is another issue. Unfortunately the deck is on the backlit side of the tracks, though the light may be right on summer mornings for southbounds. This location is still worth a visit though as with a telephoto lens one can get some good shots of northbounds coming around the S curve with part of the skyline in the background.  This is pretty much a summer only location as the light does not swing around far enough in the wintertime. All being said its one of the safer area’s to watch, you will not be bothered by any hobos or other undesirables and of course no worries about the railroad cops.

Jefferson Ave.

Jefferson Ave. once crossed the tracks between West Marietta and Northside drive on a at grade crossing. When the area, formerly a scrapyard, was redeveloped in the mid 90’s after the olympic construction boom, the grade crossing was removed to seperate the redeveloping “West Midtown” are from the ghetto on the other side of the track, which is the north fringe of the infamous Bankhead area. While it has probably made the area a little safer, it has cost us railfans a good spot and the only at grade crossing on the entire terminal sub.  Jefferson St. is still accessible from the Southside of the tracks, just cross over the tracks on Northside Dr. and Jefferson Ave. will dead end at the tracks. The neighborhood isnt great and since this is a crew change point, trespassing is not advised. That being said its a decent shot for northbounds in the evening and southbounds in the morning, nothing special but its well lit most of the day.

Northside Drive

Northside Drive is one of Atlanta’s main north-south thoroughfares. The view here is decent for southbounds and the bridge has a sidewalk. The road divides the revitalized West Midtown district from the less desirable part of Marietta St. that is the home of several strip clubs and not much else. The area is frequented by the normal Atlanta bums and undesirables, ive never shot here as there seem to be more desirable locations elsewhere but its probably not a bad spot for a few shots. In the summer you may be able to get a shot of a train going under the old Bankhead highway bridge.

Old Bankhead Highway

Atlanta’s infamous bridge to nowhere. The bridge once carried the Bankhead highway over the tracks but was closed sometime post 1993. The north approach has been cut off but the south approach is still in place though fenced off and barricaded. The bridge has become a nice home for the local hobo’s, probably why the north end was cut off. Probably a poor idea to shoot from here, havnt tried it myself.

Marrieta St. -North Ave

This location is known as North Ave by train crews and is where trains are often parked for crew changes. Here North Avenue crosses under Marietta St. and the tracks on a 1940’s era underpass. It is the location of what was once the North Yards, which have been long abandoned and the land redeveloped. However a part of the roundhouse survives as do several yard bridges over North Avenue. This is pretty much the last place along the gulch other than Spring where you can shoot at tracklevel. In the morning you will have good light on southbounds. The rest of the day you will have to shoot around the curve, which is a pretty mediocre shot. On summer evenings it may be possible to shoot northbounds which would make for a good shot with the skyline.

Jones Ave.

The Jones Avenue overpass is located at the north switch of the Georgia Railroad Wye, here two CSX tracks diverge to connect to Hulsey yard and the Georgia RR main. Currently there is a new bridge being built to replace the older span which is still in service. The new bridge has the disadvantage of having a chain link fence which will inhibit photos, the old bridge will presumably be torn down in the near future.

The location is good in the early morning and late evening for shooting northbounds and in the afternoon for shooting southbounds. You can get quite a nice shot here of a northbound in the morning passing the Georgia Dome. and the CNN center.

World Congress Center

The World Congress Center and the Georgia dome were built right on top of the site of Union Station and a former ACL yard. The redevelopment of the area resulted in the elimination of much of the trackage in the area. Today the 4 tracks Terminal mainline passes right under the World Congress Center. On the south side of the complex there is a park built right over the tracks. From the park there are several shots to be had. In the winter and summer mornings you can shoot trains from the Techwood Drive bridge coming out from under the tunnel. From the park itself you can shoot broadside angles of the train between the bridge and tunnel entrance. In the summer it is possible to shoot northbounds entering the tunnel.

Summer

Northbound: Evening

Southbound: Morning

Winter

Southbound and broadside only.

Techwood Drive

Techwood Drive is the one of the best shots in the area, and one of the safer ones at that. Here you can shoot both Northbounds and Southbounds in the evenings in both summer and winter. Behind the train you will have a nice backdrop of the Atlanta skyline. If you have a interesting consist or a lineup of nothing like northbounds then this is the spot to be.

Summer

Northbound: Evening

Southbound: Broadside PM shots only

Winter

Northbound: PM broadside only

Southbound: Evening, or nose on AM shots.

Terminal Station Tower

Once upon a time Atlanta had two grand passenger stations, Union and Terminal. Terminal was the larger and busier of the two, which served the Central of Georgia, the Southern, A&WP and the Seaboard Airline. In Atlanta’s brilliance of the time, both stations fell to the wrecking ball in the early 1970’s, only to be replaced by empty parking lots. Today, all that remains of Terminal Station is the old South tower and one platform that the Southern used for a time for the Crescent before moving it to Peachtree and later to park business cars. In the background stands the former Southern Railways offices, vacated by NS a few years ago.  This is a site filled with history and there are definitely some interesting shots to be had.The best time to shoot here is summer evenings when you can shoot Northbounds coming past the tower. The future of he tower is unknown so getting some shots now rather than later is not a bad idea.

Summer

Northbound: Early morning and Evening

Southound: Late afternoon and Evening

Winter

Northbound: Morning broadside shots

Southbound: Various shots possible all day.

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Peters St.

Peters St. is the last overpass on the Gulch. In the winter you can shoot soutbounds here with part of the skyline in the background and during the longest days of summer you can shoot broadsides of Northbounds off the other side of the bridge.

This spot is getting into the rougher side of the town but the area is slowly gentrifying. So far i have not had any problems at this location. The only thing ive had happened is having people tell me not to jump, which i assured them I had no intentions of doing so.

Summer

Northbound: Early morning and late evening broadside shots

Southbound: Afternoon and early afternoon (track is shadowed in late afternoon)

Winter

Northbound: Not shootable

Southbound: Morning and afternoon

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Spring St.

One of the best locations in Atlanta. If your only here for a short period of time put this on your list of must get shots. The Spring St. location is named for a set of signals at what was once the south end of Terminal station that NS refers to as Spring for the adjacent road, one of the main thoroughfares of Atlanta. The location affords excellent shots of trains with the Atlanta skyline in the background. The view is not without a tradeoff as the location is used as a corridor for local urban outdoorsmen to reach the bus and MARTA station. Ive not had any problem here by myself, but definitely a spot to watch your back. The best shot is in the evening from the west side of the track which includes the best skyline view and a good side angle of the train. In the winter you can shoot on the east side of the tracks in the morning. To access the west side of the track, cross the tracks on the overpass at Peters St. and then pull off at the first driveway to the left and park at the gate. Listen close to the radio, and keep a window cracked as sometimes you dont get much warning. To reach the East side of the track you can either use the Atlantic Packaging driveway off Spring St. or drive down the gravel road from McDaniel St.

Summer

Northbound: Early morning from the East side of the tracks.

Southbound: PM shot from the west side of the tracks.

Winter

Northbound: Not shootable

Southbound: AM shots from the east side, PM shots from the west side.

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McDaniel St.

2 Comments

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  By georgianna martin, August 26, 2009 @ 7:37 am

  Who is the new terminal manager? What is Mark Mayo’s position? I understand he is a young man with lots of potential.

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  By Heywood, November 13, 2009 @ 3:49 am

  Mark Mayo is the GM for the Atlanta Division, One of the last of the “good guys” on CSX

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