September 2023 - The MrT Podcast Studio

USRJ S3 Ep 15 Atlanta to beyond Pell City

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Atlanta to beyond Pell City on The Crescent – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 15

Atlanta to beyond Pell City on The Crescent continues my journey as we slowly travel towards Birmingham on The Crescent enroute to New Orleans.

To view the photographs for this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Leaving Atlanta:

We are 49 minutes late as we pull out of the station. Our route takes us past the a panoramic view of many of the city’s skyscrapers. I am disappointed that Wells Fargo’s building is not like a stage coach!

We are soon into countryside as we travel across Georgia.

The train rolls through a number of small towns, or in US speak ‘cities’. They are spread out like a ribbon along Georgia’s US Route 78. Each community seems to have a selection of auto dealers and repairers and a number of churches along the road which runs next to the tracks.

We pass through Powder Springs, Temple, Bremen before we reach Tallapoosa which, with around 3,100 residents, is the last town of any size before we reach the state line.

The Alabama – Georgia State Line:

We cross the State Line and soon pass the small communities of Muscadine, Fruithurst and Edwardsville as we travel through the countryside before reaching Heflin. As we leave Heflin we pass what looks like a field of parked cars which, on taking a closer look, turns out to be a car cemetery.

The journey slows down:

We stop, we wait for a while. Then we reverse which makes me wonder if we have been in a siding. We stop again. All the while the Amtrak Train Tracker is telling me that we’ll arrive early into New Orleans.

Apparently the network can’t detect our train and so the conductor is having to walk along the track beside the train!

Anniston:

The station dates from 1925 and The Crescent is the only train to stop there today. A restoration project in 2008 has made it available for today’s passengers. 2,486 passengers used the station in 2022.

We leave Anniston 2 hours and 12 minutes late!

Our journey continues through countryside and small communities, through Pell City and on towards Birmingham. We have travelled around 120 miles from Atlanta in 5 hours, definitely not high speed!

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as I continue my journey south on The Crescent towards New Orleans.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Summer Party for use in this podcast.

TH2023 T02 1 Orient Express

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:42 — 18.0MB)

Season 2023 – Talk 02.1 – The Orient Express

In The Orient Express Margaret Denyer tells the story of this luxury train over the last 150 years.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Georges Nagelmackers :

Margaret starts by telling us about this Belgian civil engineer and businessman who travels to the United States where he experiences Pullman carriages and believes that there is a market for luxury trains in Europe. He founds a company in 1873 which becomes the legendary Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

In 1882 the first train composed completely of Wagon Lits carriages leaves Paris for Vienna.

James Allport:

We hear that he is the General Manager of the Midland Railway and invites George Pullman to Britain. They agree that Pullman will supply carriages built in his US works for use in England where a supplement will be charged.

In 1881 the first Pullman only train starts to run between London and Brighton and in 1933 it becomes the Brighton Belle.

The Orient Express gains popularity:

The early years of the 20th Century see the Orient Express start to become famous with Kings and Princes, the famous and the wealthy. The routes expand.

The First World War and after:

All services stop at the start of the war in August 1914. It ends in November 1918 with the Armistice where a Wagon Lits car is used for the ceremony in the forest at Compiègne.

Orient Express services restart but with changes to the routes. The trains can no longer travel through Germany and so the Simplon tunnel is used. The services become popular with the rich and famous again.

Listen to the podcast and hear Margaret tell the rest of the story including the decline of the service and its rebirth from the ashes.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History Group .

It is not always possible to use all of the images presented in the original talk because of copyright reasons.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

USRJ S3 Ep14 We reach Atlanta

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:15 — 18.5MB)

We reach Atlanta on The Crescent – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 14

We reach Atlanta on The Crescent continues my journey both through the night and into the morning, as we travel towards Atlanta on The Crescent on my journey towards New Orleans.

To view the photographs for this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Greensboro:

We are late and so it is very dark as we cross the Virginia / North Carolina State line.

Our next stop is in Greensboro which is the largest city in the Piedmont Triad metro region. The impressive Beaux Arts station dates from 1927 and is a stop for the Crescent, Carolinian and Piedmont trains.

High Point:

We reach the ‘Furniture Capital of the World’ which uses the symbol of the Worlds largest Chest of Drawers. Textiles and Thomas Built school buses also feature in the local industrial mix. The platforms are at a lower level than the Richardson Romanesque style station buildings which date from 1907.

Salisbury:

Another magnificent station building which I miss because I’m sleeping peacefully in my Roomette. The station dates from 1908 and is in the Spanish Mission style. In 2019 21,771 passengers used the station.

Charlotte:

The southern terminal of the Carolinian and the Piedmont trains is an ugly station with an exposed precast concrete frame. The station is one of the busiest in the South East USA with ten trains a day stopping there.

Gastonia:

The city is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area and is home to Parkdale Mills who are the worlds leading manufacturer of spun yarn. The station is a flag stop because passengers need to request that the train stops.

Spartanburg:

The Southern Railway built station has been open since 1904. In 1996 there was a major fire and a 16 year old led a crusade to save the station! The station is open every night from 11.00 pm to 6.00 am. In 2019 3,711 passengers turned out to use the station.

Greenville:

Once known as the ‘Textile Capital of the World’ the city now hosts the head offices of a number of large companies. Wayne Oates, the psychologist responsible for the word ‘workaholic’, and Jesse Jackson were both born here.

The modern station, reminiscent of a retail warehouse, dates from 1988.

Clemson:

It is, for me, early morning when we reach Clemson because we are running late. We are now in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

The station dates from 1916 and hosted 2,868 passengers in 2022.

Toccoa:

Home to the 101st Airborne Division’s paratrooper base which features in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. It is also the home to Star Trek’s Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy and one time ‘Worlds Strongest Man’ Paul Anderson.

The wood framed station building dates from 1915 and is currently used by both Amtrak and the local community.

Gainesville:

We are now in the foothills of Georgia’s ‘Blue Ridge Mountains‘ in a town known as the ‘Chicken Capital of the World’ because of the number of poultry processing plants.

The station opens an hour before a train is due and closes one hour after it leaves. In 2019 there were 5,277 passengers.

Atlanta:

Peachtree station in Atlanta is magnificent at street level. It is in the Italian Renaissance style and dates from 1918. Originally a commuter stop on the north side of the city, it is used annually by around 50,000 passengers (2022) who either join or leave The Crescent.