A large number of NEW rail ties and about a dozen cans of rail spikes have been placed along the S-Line between College St and Oglethorpe Ave. in Macon along a section of curved track. It also apears that new balast has been deposited on the track in this area. The rail ties appears sufficent to replace ALL of the ties in this area unless they are later redistributed along the route.

-- Carl Anderson (CarlAnderson5@earthlink.net), December 02, 2003

Answers

I apologize for Elton's outburst not relating to the subject at hand. He likes to tip the bottle a good bit, if y'all know what I mean, and as a result he goes online and lets his little alcohol- soaked brain control his fingers.

(heh heh)

-- Jared Blocker (NS) (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), April 27, 2004.

...I wouldn't listen to Jared too much about railroad stuff.

Only thing he knows about is Dodge trucks!!

har har har

-- Elton (RooseveltRRInc@aol.com), April 26, 2004.

Jared:

I believe they are running these trains this way due to a crew shortage on the Southern side (especially Engineers) on the weekends. Where we are drastically short of qualified engineers on the Southern south end, they apparently have plenty on the Central. This is quite a transition for us yard crews that work at Industry and Forest Park on the weekends, as we are used to having the Central main all to ourselves.

-- Tony Skeen (keen2734@comcast.net), April 26, 2004.

Train 175 southbound ran on the Central side this past Saturday (24th) with over 100 cars. When I got to work and saw the train had gone by our scanner at Bolingbroke, I called the terminal trainmaster at Brosnan Yard. He didn't know the reason behind it, but that it definitely wasn't for testing purposes, even though he confirmed NS was going to run through trains on the line in the near future.

It sure is funny now to see G04 (Morrow local) running through Jonesboro like a bat out of hell.

-- Jared Blocker (NS) (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), April 26, 2004.

The latest Operation bulletin put out by NS has increased the speed on the old Central Atlanta to Macon Line to 30MPH fromMacon to the 280 Milepost, which is just about at the signal at LEE (the old Army depot or Fort Gillem lead). They ran a 142 car through freight down this trackage Saturday the 17th, I don't know if it was a test or if they just ran short of crews on the Southern side. We've been told that traffic will increase as a result of this trackwork, which will undoubtedly be a major headache for us Yard crews which switch between Industry Yard in East Point and Lee.

As far as commuter rail, I have it on very good authority from our supervisors that this is all talk and it ain't going anywhere. As information I am a Conductor and a Union Officer who works this line each day with 27 years experience.

Tony Skeen

-- Tony Skeen (keen2734@comcast.net), April 23, 2004.

Another update:

As of 1201am March 8, the speed limit from the MP S 194 (Monroe) and the MP S 248 (East Griffin) has been increased to 30mph. It's still 10mph from the MP S 192 (Edgewood) to the MP S 194.

Expect the rest to be increased soon, once the new crossties get broken in.

-- Jared Blocker (NS) (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), March 09, 2004.

They were doing some tamping and ballast grading this afternoon through Jonesboro........can't wait until they install the rest of the concrete crossings!! The crossing at Noahs Ark Rd has them installed, and it's the last one done so far. Let me tell you, going over that thing is smooth as silk. And if anybody has traveled over the crossings in downtown Jonesboro, you know what I'm talking about.........those things are so rough now, it would knock the alignment off a bulldozer, heh heh.

-- Jared Blocker (NS) (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), March 05, 2004.

Track through the city of Jonesboro was tied, tamped, and leveled on Tuesday, March 2. I'm here to tell ya, some of the wood they pulled out was pretty terrible!

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), March 02, 2004.

S-line update A recent(Feb.29,2004) inspection of the line North of Griffin yielded the following information. The First Crew has completed its work to about MP 270-271 which is north of Love Joy and it is complete to just South of Lovejoy. Most of the grade crossing are now repaired but a couple of the ones with heavy local auto traffic will be redone with panel track so that the work will be completed quicker. Case in point is the crossing in Hampton. The second crew was at MP 261 just south of Hampton. It appears that all the work is complete South of this location. The Camp cars were still in Griffin near Experiment Sunday evening. Their track equipment is also staged at this location on the same siding. They are rapidly closing in on Jonesboro and points North.

-- william jones (wrjones845@aol.com), March 01, 2004.

Yeah, it's still gonna be jointed rail, especially through Jonesboro. I've heard from 2 sources, one of them from NS, that the company plans to run two through trains, one north/one south, after the maintenance program is complete. Speed limit should be up around 25mph or so, and that's better than the dreaded 10mph.

-- Jared Blocker (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), February 21, 2004.

Let me clarify...they were replacing only a few sections. They had a long piece that they had cut into sections. As far as I could tell it was all going back in as jointed rail.

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), February 20, 2004.

Glad to see that the old S line is getting some attention & new rails/ties. Could NS be planning to increase traffic?.....what is current daily train frequency south of Forest Park? Pope Dickson is/was my 2nd cousin, and as a boy growing up in the 50/60s in East Point, I visited there at his funeral home in Jonesboro many times...passenger trains were still running in front of Pope's place in those days!

-- Greg Hodges (lynnhodges@earthlink.net), February 19, 2004.

Welded rail in Jonesboro?!? What's the world coming to?

Heck, until I was about 10 years old or so, you couldn't convince me that anything but jointed rail was used by railroads, as all I had ever seen (at least what I paid attention to) was the old jointed rail through downtown Jonesboro.

-- Bart Youngblood (bart99gt@yahoo.com), February 19, 2004.

As I wrote this, NS crews are laying a new rail in downtown Jonesboro, in front of Pope Dickson Funeral Home.

-- Andrew Durden (SERM) (gapower97@yahoo.com), February 19, 2004.

The maintenance of way bunk cars were parked at Experiment (Griffin) on Sunday night (2/16/04)

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), February 18, 2004.

Last night (2-17-04), Highway 16 in Griffin was closed both directions at the railroad crossing with a crew there replacing the crossing. There were also road closings up the line north of the Hwy 16 crossing being replaced.

-- Wes Thompson (cofgeorgia@yahoo.com), February 18, 2004.

Currently the track maintenance crews are slowly making their way north, getting close to Griffin now.

I've noticed recently there was a long piece of rail laying beside the main just north of the depot in downtown Jonesboro. The rock has already been dumped, so the right-of-way should look pretty good once the ties are put in.

-- Jared Blocker (NS) (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), February 17, 2004.

Thanks.

I'd guess that the other signals were removed when NS removed the CTC system from the line in the late 80's early 90's. My old Ga Division timetable still shows CTC in place as of 1988. My current 2002 track chart shows the SB signal at Telfair/Monroe St.

I can remember when the siding, signals and all, used to still be around in downtown Jonesboro. Although I imagine the current trackwork will fix this, you can still see where they patched over the street crossings from where the old siding was pulled up.

-- Bart Youngblood (bart99gt@yahoo.com), February 12, 2004.

A few years ago a work crew removed all overhead communications lines and their supporting poles as well as all warning signals along this line in Bibb County except for the ones a near the Monroe/Tatnall bridge and the Edgewood junction. This included the signals near the Bibb/Monroe County line, near the old Wesylean station, the North Payne and Payne switchouts for the Payne City siding. There had also been siginals behind the Museum of Arts and Sciences between Napier Ave and Forsyth Road that had been removed at least 10 years ago.

-- Carl Anderson (CarlAnderson5@earthlink.net), February 12, 2004.

Interesting. I never thought the signal system was out of service there. I'm assuming this is the stretch of track right after the S line crosses over I-75. I've seen, and have taken a picture of the signal right on the other side of the overpass about this time last year. It was showing a steady approach indication, which is to be expected unless the dispatcher has a train lined up through Edgewood.

Or has it just been fixed at Approach for a while?

-- Bart Youngblood (bart99gt@yahoo.com), February 12, 2004.

Rails have been placed along the line at the old Vineville Station at Holt Ave. in Macon. Work also appears to have been done to reactivate the siginal system on the line in that area.

-- Carl Anderson (CarlAnderson5@earthlink.net), February 12, 2004.

Latest update on the S line rehab. As of Friday morning Jan 16th. The two track crews are at MP 204.5+- Just past Loraine (Mt Zion Baptist Crossing) and past the Rock Quarry MP 212? (the Tie and Pallet Mill). Most of the grade crossings that have had the track work completed have also been completely reworked with the new Rubber Pads. The crews are replacing about 1800 to 1900 ties per mile which has made the work rather slow. The second crew yesterday only made about 1 1/2 miles of progress, some slow down caused by some equipment problems in the middle of the track equipment. They only work a 4 day week and then go home. The guys on the second crew are from Indiana and Missouri and the other crew has some from Pennsylvania The T&S Supervisor is an old Nickel Plate employee. They should be back on Monday.

-- william jones (wrjones845@aol.com), January 16, 2004.

In Macon the crossings at Telfair Street and Edgewood Ave as well as the crossing at Tucker Road were closed for track work today. Tomorrow, if the current pattern is follwed, it will be Coleman Ave and Lake Court with Holt Ave and Brookdale Ave, the last two, soon after. Has anyone else noticed track work at grade crossings anywhere else?

-- Carl Anderson (CarlWAnderson@yahoo.com), January 08, 2004.

The maintenance plan is to go all the way north to Forest Park I believe. G04, the Morrow Local, which runs north from Griffin, will no longer turn at Forest Park until the work is complete, mostly because the crew goes on the law nearly every day on this 10 mph track. Morrow is about as far G04 goes now. Once the fresh ties are put in, expect 25 mph or a little higher from the line.

Caught the Herzog rock train headed back south through Jonesboro this past Friday. It had just unloaded somewhere but I could not find where. The train had 2 Dash 9s and a former Conrail Dash 8, the first time such big power was on this side of the line in a long while. Up until about 2 years ago or so NS was using the S line to run extras every so often, usually southbound grain trains. After NS put the 10mph speed restriction on most of the line, they quit running these extras here and instead put them back on the Southern side.

It's also been heard that NS will start running two through freights, one each way, sometime after the maintenance is complete.

I work for NS in downtown Atlanta as a clerk, know the engineer on G04 personally, and live about a half mile from the mainline in Joneboro. I've been trying to keep updated on the situation by talking to the G04 engineer and some other people at work, so I'll post as I learn something new.

-- Jared Blocker (jlaneblock@hotmail.com), December 15, 2003.

Latest update...the NS MOW train was in the siding at Morrow facing north at around 8 last night. GP38-2 5043 was on the head end. The locomotive was left running, but no sign of any crew. Ron I'd have taken pics but it was dark. May try to check it out at lunch today.

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), December 10, 2003.

Looking good in Jonesboro as well...piles of 4 and 5 new ties about every 8 to 10 feet. Haven't seen any ballast yet. The possibility of commuter rail on the S-line seems to be growing as well. I recieved an article by email covering Jonesboro's plan for building parking decks for commuters, as well as housing the commuter station in the old C of G depot. Apparently the S-line will be alive and well for years to come.

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), December 08, 2003.

I received the following information from GaRail Dear Mr. Anderson,

No, construction to support commuter rail service between Macon and Atlanta has not started.  The work in question would be solely a Norfolk Southern track maintenance effort.

Coordination with Norfolk Southern for use of the rail line is on-going and, to date, only limited project funds have been appropriated.  These funds cover railroad negotiations, some preliminary engineering and station planning / site protection.

Sincerely,

William R. McCombs, P.E.
Georgia Rail Consultants, 101 Marietta Street, SW, Suite 3480,
Atlanta,Georgia
30303 

-----Original Message-----

From: Carl Anderson

Sent:Wednesday, December 03, 2003 11:21 PM

To: georgiatrains@garail.com

Subject: Macon-Atlanta Commuter Rail Service

The Norfolk Southern Railroad has begun to do major work on the S Line in theMacon area. This involves the replacement of about half of the sleepers with NEW not used timber. This is the first time NEW wood has been installed, except for grade crossings and switch out locations, in nearly 35 years.

Does this signal the start of construction on the Macon-Atlanta commuter rail line?

Sincerely;

Carl Anderson

Macon, GA

-- Carl Anderson (CarlAnderson5@earthlink.net), December 04, 2003.

It may extend even farther north. I saw NS maintenance of way personel today near Jonesboro High School, and it appeared they were marking ties and rails.

-- Andrew Durden (gapower97@yahoo.com), December 03, 2003.

Not only are they in the area you reported , but continue on up the line toward Griffin, Just last night at the MGRA meeting at the Gordon Depot, it was reported that about 30+ cars of new ties were in the Griffin yard. It would appear that work is about to begin on some track rehab.

-- william jones (wrjones845@aol.com), December 02, 2003.