Access by train/transit:
Amtrak in downtown Atlanta
The Scoop:
Most of the major rail traffic in and out of the Atlanta area used
to hit CSX's Tilford yard, and Norfolk Southern's Inman yard. Starting
in 2018 however, CSX made the decision of take out the hump at Tilford.
From Trains magazine: The Jim Foote-era at CSX Transportation began with a rumble that
emphatically signaled his commitment to following through on what the late CEO E. Hunter Harrison
began. In a symbolic move, Foote’s first decision after being named chief executive in December
was ordering the hump bulldozed at Tilford Yard in Atlanta. The yard was one of eight humps
converted to flat-switching last year under Harrison, who died in December. “Atlanta hump
yard today is flat,” Foote says. “There is no turning back.”
CSX announced as early as March 2017 that they were planning on bulldozing the
hump at Tilford. The city has been trying to get Tilford (and probably
Inman) yard closed and gone for years. Sometime in 2018, CSX started
removing about half of the yard.
If you venture here, you will still not be disappointed, as there is something moving
almost every minute of the waking day!
Acknowledgements:
Denver Todd
Trains Magazine
Google Maps
Bing Maps
MAP 1 - the Atlanta Homepage
MAP 2 - Downtown Atlanta MAP3 - NS Inman yard, and
CSX's Tilford and Howell Yards
MAP 4 - south of Atlanta
MAP 5 - east of Atlanta
MAP 6 - west of Atlanta
MAP 7 - the Duluth and Norcross area, with the
Southeast Railroad Museum MAP 8
- the Marietta and Elizabeth area - NW outside the Perimeter MAP 9 - Guide
to the Georgia Northeastern RR MAP 10 - the
Kennesaw area & the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
All three yards, Howell is the "smaller" one to the right
NS's Inman Yard
GPS Coordinates: 33.798155, 84.419994 (center of yard)
CSX's Tilford Yard
GPS Coordinates: 33.801272, 84.448239 (center of yard, the whole thing)
GPS Coordinates: 33.808855, 84.454911 (center of yard, what's left in the north section)
The pictures below are exciting as they are depressing... ending the legacy of a
yard that has been around for 60+ years.
Progress is often painful from a historic standpoint.
I hope for CSX's sake, that this doesn't follow in the steps of Conrails/PRR's
low grade route which we can not ever get back now that traffic has increased!
CSX's Howell Yard
GPS Coordinates: 33.798155, 84.419994 (center of yard)
NEW 06/02/2010,
10/16/2013
Last Modified 25-Jul-2019
