Atlanta owes its very existence to the railroads that crossed there and served a wide area of the South, so it's a little ironic that to visit its nearest railroad museum you need a car for the 30-mile trip to Duluth, Georgia, where the Southeastern Railway Museum even includes the former Duluth station, closed since the 1950s.
The station waiting room is filled with local history exhibits
And the museum itself is a mixed bag; it's remote enough that it doesn't get a large volume of visitors and that has to have an impact on its direct and indirect funding. It was designated in 2000 as Georgia's official Museum of Transportation History, but the title apparently came without cash.
As a result, the museum seems very much a shoestring operation. It is open four days a week with almost no paid staff, many of the exhibits are in poor condition, and many others are not on display. For anyone not a real train enthusiast, it may not be worth the trek.
Salvaged repair equipment, dispatcher call boards and signal lighting
Which is a shame, says this train enthusiast, because among the items in its collection are a number of unusual, even unique items that are crying out for tender loving restoration. Let's take a walk through some of them, including quite a number of non-rail items that fit the transportation history checkbox.
The Pullman car 'Superb' was set up as a private car, with some bunks and some more luxurious accommodations, including the shower (just below). It was used at times by both Presidents Harding and Wilson. The museum also has another sleeper that was used by FDR during the 1930s and a 1960s Amtrak 'slumbercoach,' but neither is open to visitors.
Three of the museum's eight steam locomotives are accessible to view. The green one is a Heisler geared locomotive; geared engines were built so that several rotations of the crankshaft would turn the wheels on the track only once. That allowed the locomotive to pull very heavy loads, if slowly. No surprise that this one spent its working life at a limestone quarry!
Two classic and easily recognized diesel engines sit outside. The Southern Pacific E series (this is an E8) and the similar-looking F series are the engines that bridged the end of the steam era; they were built by GM's Electro-Motive Division from 1937 to 1963. The Georgia Railroad unit below was also built by EMD; it's a General Purpose locomotive, abbreviated GP and often called Jeep.
And here's the little train that sorta could... One caboose, one equipment car turned into open passenger seating and a yellow yard-switcher. Admission to the museum includes one ride, which takes about ten minutes to go from one of the museum sheds to another and then to the gate and back. They could do better...
Meanwhile, back to the interesting rolling stock, including a refrigerator car or 'reefer' of the kind that made long-distance shipping of perishable food possible, and two work cars, a red caboose and an unusual green car that was built as living quarters for crews working on track and communications far from base. No need to return home each night (or for the company to pay for hotels).
Also for the work crews, a pair of man-powered 'doodle-bugs' that moved staff and equipment at work sites.
And here's one I've never seen in another rail museum: An army kitchen car. During World War II, railroads carried 44 million military passengers around the country. To make that possible, Pullman built high-density troop sleeping cars, and kitchens like this were built to cook for 500 soldiers at a time. After the Korean War, air transport made them obsolete; most ended up as baggage cars and boxcars.
And then, after a brief stop in the waiting room for a rest, we'll move on to the non-rail exhibits...
Just outside the waiting room, we can catch a cab. The Checker Marathon, center, was the last cab actually made by Checker; some of us miss its big space and jumpseats that made it a cab for five passengers without even using the front seat.
Outdoors, under the shed, there's other forms of urban transport, including a number of very familiar buses and even a car from Atlanta's MARTA rapid transit system. It looks just like the ones still in service!
Last, but not least, a vintage steam fire engine complete with firehouse Dalmatian and—what every museum ends with—the gift shop.
Southeastern Railway Museum is at 3595 Buford Highway, Duluth, Georgia. It's open 10-5 Thursday through Saturday and 12-5 on Sunday. Admission is $18, $15 for seniors and students 13-21, $12 children 2-12
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