Athens, GA interchange with Hartwell cut off???

[Railfan1]

Yeah that's what I used to think too, but they are making a serious rebound.  They are doing a tremendous amount of work here on the Abbeville sub.  They have bridge work going on, and I just photographed a ballast train at work a few days ago.  Today I was passing through Elberton, and I noticed that they have a bunch of tie gondalas working south, and I also saw some ribbon rail placed beside a bunch of sections.

I hear that their stock is doing well, and the affects on the track are quite nice...although still not as good as the NS line in Gainesville that I grew up on.

I live about 30 minutes North of Gainesville around Cornelia where I do most of my railfanning. NS has been doing a good bit of work on their line lately too.

[BaltACD]

CSX and most all Class I's are limiting the number of Interchange locations with the various companies they interchange cars with so as to simplify classification switching and job assignments.  Interchange locations that handled 1 to 5 cars a day are things of history as the economics of having to have crews service this minimal number of cars, and the revenues they generate, are prohibitively expensive.

[Dough]

Yeah that's what I used to think too, but they are making a serious rebound.  They are doing a tremendous amount of work here on the Abbeville sub.  They have bridge work going on, and I just photographed a ballast train at work a few days ago.  Today I was passing through Elberton, and I noticed that they have a bunch of tie gondalas working south, and I also saw some ribbon rail placed beside a bunch of sections.

I hear that their stock is doing well, and the affects on the track are quite nice...although still not as good as the NS line in Gainesville that I grew up on.

[Railfan1]

CSX??? Maintenance??????

On a more serious note, yeah, that is another possibility.

[Dough]

Well I think that it is actually CSX that cut of the Hartwell, and not the other way around.  CSX is the one that removes the switches.  I'm thinking that Benny Ray didn't get an interchange agreement with CSX.  Then when CSX maintence came around, they just pulled the switches instead of maintaining them.

[Railfan1]

NS is leasing Hartwell RR the line from Toccoa to Elberton (former Southern trackage). My guess would be that it is some of the terms and conditions for Hartwell not to be connected to CSX and get all of their business from NS (ya' know since CSX and NS are rivals and NS doesn't want to give away business ).

[Dough]

Thanks for the ideas, but I don't think they are changing the switch.  I think they just pulled the switch.  Take a look at this link.  You are looking East (I took that picture from the outfield of that baseball field facing the same way).  You can see the interchange tracks curving off to the right.  (You can also click on the West button and see the actual interchange as well as a MoW piece that the Hartwell shortline uses)

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=pntwr481jwrr&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=5829185&encType=1

Also, you can see that their used to be a switch at the mainline, and then another switch immediatly after it.  That "upper" siding is now completly cut off as it went to another interchange that no longer exists.

What you saw in the original picture was actually the old planking for the footbridge part of that huge bridge across the river.  They pulled it all off since they are in the middle of replacing the timbers.

Also, it the swich has been gone for a couple of months now.

[mudchicken]

Just a hunch:

Switch geometry change in conjunction with a tie program. (Switches in or anywhere near a main track curve are no-no's) - Is it the angle of the photo or is the thing now in a spiral with most of the curve outside the frame of the photo?

Put in a #9 turnout with a new spring frog replacing a #15 RBM  and change the connection layout? Looks like there are new long switch ties piled out there. Interchange tracks don't need to be high speed.

[Dough]

Why did CSX cut off their interchange line with the Hartwell?  In the picture below you can see the CSX mainline going off into the distance.  Crossing it is the former Southern which is now leased from NS by the Hartwell Railroad (a local shortline). 

Does anybody know why they CSX recently cut off the interchange tracks with the Hartwell?  I know that they rarely actually did any interchange, but they did store MoW equipment as well as extra power on them.  And occasionally they would place a coal car or two over there that might actually have been destined for the Hartwell.  I noticed that they did the same thing where the Hartwell line used to connect with CSX in Elberton.