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Southern Railway’s 
Brosnan Hump Yard

Plaque commemorating D.W. Brosnan and his contributions to railroading.
August 11, 1982

My first assignment after joining the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Research & Test Deptartment (R&T) at the end of 1977 as an environmental specialist was to support the development of national noise standards for the railroad industry. We measured sound levels of locomotives, retarders, car coupling, load testing, refrigerator cars, and other noise sources at several railyards around the country. I’d like to share with you some images from one of the yards we studied: Southern Railway’s Brosnan hump yard at Macon, Georgia.

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The Twin Bridges 
of Ridge Avenue

There’s a little mystery in Old Allegheny City—why did the Pennsylvania Railroad build parallel bridges, only a block apart, over their mainline and why are both on Ridge Avenue? Allegheny City was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1907, so the answer is lost to history. These twin bridges mark the eastern end of what is known locally as “The Trench.”

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A Brief History of 
Southern Railway’s 
Atlanta Office Building

View of Southern Railway’s Atlanta office complex looking south along Spring Street, SW . Photo was taken some time in the late 1950s or early 60s. Photo courtesy of O. Fenton Wells.

Railroad office buildings are not normally a subject covered so extensively as other aspects of railroading. I did not even think of them during my early years of rail-fanning, until I began my thirty year railroad career with Southern Railway in September, 1973.

The Southern Railway office complex was located on what was then Spring Street, SW in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The concrete buildings were quite impressive. The east side of the buildings faced Spring Street, while the west side faced the Atlanta to Macon main lines of the Southern and Central of Georgia railroads. The buildings housed various departments including information technology, operations, car accounting, engineering (maintenance of way and structures) to name a few. I worked in the Bridge Department for twenty-nine years which was a part of engineering.

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