REAL TRAINS

The CSX Intermodal Freight Yard - Atlanta, GA

I currently live in a large loft apartment in downtown Atlanta. Directly behind my loft building is the start of a fairly decent sized CSX Intermodal freight yard. There are tons and tons of shipping containers, most of them from China, and then a huge gantry crane that lifts those containers onto the train cars. If you're unfortunate enough to have an apartment that faces the tracks (as I do not), the sounds of the yard can be quite loud and startling until you get used to them. My first experience with these loud noises came shortly after I moved in back in 2001. I moved into my place on Sept. 1st 2001. Only 10 days later, the tragedy of Sept. 11th took place. Like most Americans I was pretty jittery in the weeks that followed. About a week after 9/11, I was standing on the platform of the Marta subway station that sits just across the tracks (about a block from my place) when I heard this gigantic BOOM! The loud boom sounded like a bomb going off and scared the crap out of me. I was relieved to find out that it was no bomb. What I had heard was only the sound one of those big CSX engines latching up to a string of cars! If you've never heard the sound of a engine coupling up to some cars, it's REALLY LOUD! Anyway, I've been here 5 years now so I'm quite used to the sounds of the yard. In fact, I sorta like them now. My favorite sound is the familiar chug of those big CSX engines as they rumble by first thing in the morning. There's something soothing about those large diesel titans. Our 4 year old son absolutely loves living next to a yard. Not only does he get to stand less than 10 feet from a huge CSX engine as it slowly rumbles by (don't worry, there's a fence in between), but sometimes the engineers will talk to him and even blow the horn for him! It's experiences like those that ensure that he will have a love of trains all his life, just like his daddy. :)

Anyway, on to the pics! I've accumulated enough pictures to divide them up into sections. The bulk of the stuff that rolls through the CSX Yard is either CSX, Union Pacific or BNSF. Every now and then, however, I'll catch an unusual engine in the yard as well and you can find those rare gems in the "miscellaneous" section. Enjoy!

Most of my photos have been moved to my photo gallery on RailRoad Picture Archives

CSX Engines and Freight

Union Pacific Engines and Freight

BNSF Engines and Freight

Miscellaneous Engines and Freight (rare goodies!)