COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All photos are copyright by George Elwood, from my collection with credit to the photographer or by the submitter. The photos may be used by individuals for their personal non-commercial use (screen savers, modeling effort, photo albums) without restriction. Reposting or other use REQUIRES permission from the owner of the image or data.

Atlanta and West Point (AWP)

The Atlanta and West Point handled Southern passenger trains between Atlanta and West Point where they were handed over to the Western RR of Alabama.

Locomotives

• 4-6-2 290 - Atlanta GA - 8/21/57 {Bob Rathke Collection}
• 4-6-2 290 - CSX yard in Waycross, Georgia ready to pull freight train to Atlanta in August, 1990 - {Bill Dennington Photo}
• FP7A 551 - -12/68 - {GPE Photo}
• FP7A 551 - Augusta GA - 10/02/67 - (John Parker Photo) - {Dennis Schmidt Collection}
• FP7A 552 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• FP7 552 - Augusta GA - 10/25/60 - {Dennis Schmidt Photo}
• FP7A 554 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• FP7A 554 - - 12/68 - {GPE Photo}
• GP-7 572 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• GP-7 574 - - 12/68 - {GPE Photo}
• GP-7 574 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• GP-7 575 - Augusta GA - 03/05/1972 - {J Claflin Photo}(Craig Zeni Collection)
• DS4-4-10 676 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo} a 606SC pwrd , 1 of 2 purchased April 49. - Bldr Nbr 74596, Blt 4/49
• DS4-4-10 676 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• DS4-4-10 677 - - 05/69 - {GPE Collection} a 606SC pwrd 1 of 2 purchased April 49. - Bldr Nbr 74597, Blt 4/49
• GP-40 726 - - 1968 - {GPE Photo}
• GP-40 728 - Atlanta GA - 03/02/69 - (Oscar Kinsey Photo) - {Dennis Schmidt Collection}
• GP-40 733 - Camak GA - SEP 83 - {Doug Bess Photo}
• GP-7 4978 - Camak GA - SEP 83 - {Doug Bess Photo}

Steam Locomotives

• 4-6-2 290 This picture was taken back in the summer of 1992 on a special train we ran for a group of photographers. The photo location is the bridge over Peachtree Creek on the former Seaboard Airline, now CSX, main out of Atlanta which ran north and east into South Carolina and beyond. I was running the locomotive at the time this picture was taken. We made three run-bys at this location, which is on a upgrade pull towards Emory University. A video of this trip and the run to Montgomery later that Summer is available from Pentrex Videos http://www2pentrex.com/290.html titled "New Georgia Steam Excursions". -- Bill Dennington
• 4-6-2 290 -- Here is another picture from the Atlanta photographer's special. This was just a little farther upgrade from the Peachtree Creek bridge. As you can see the engine was looking just as she did in her regular service days! -- Bill Dennington
• 4-6-2 290

  This photo was taken just south of Newnan, Georgia as we were headed southbound to Montgomery on the special excursion run by the New Georgia Railroad on August 21-23, 1992. The "1992 Crescent Limited" ran over the very same trackage which 290 ran in regular service pulling the original "Crescent Limited" between Atlanta and Montgomery over the mainline of the Atlanta and West Point railway and the Western Railway of Alabama. The coaling tower would have been used by 290 in her days of regular service.

  The consist was made up of 290 and Auxiliary Water Tank, NGRX, WT-52; New Georgia FP-7, 3498; and fourteen coaches. The first two coaches in the consist were from the American-European Express; the Parlor-Observation car, New York; and the Sleeper, Paris. The diesel was included to provide power to pull the train back to Montgomery on the five runs we made out to Sprague, Alabama on Saturday, August 22. There was no wye to turn the train in Sprague, so the 3498 was put on the rear of the train to pull it back to the station in Montgomery to complete each trip.

  The trip back to Atlanta was on Sunday, August 23, 1992. On both the run down to Montgomery, and the run back to Atlanta, 290 attained speeds of better than 60 mph! This actually was not the fastest we had ever run the engine for in August of 1990 we took 290 over the CSX to Jacksonville, Florida pulling a freight train and reached 70 mph on one stretch in south Georgia north of Waycross. -- Bill Dennington

• 290 Locomotive Specification Sheet

  Here is a copy of the spec sheet from the AWP/WofA which was delivered to Lima Locomotive Works in 1925. I have the entire book of material requests and customer orders and instructions for the two heavy Pacific type locomotives built by Lima in 1926 for the West Point Route Railroads.

  290, built for the Atlanta and West Point was builder number 7008; 190, built for the Western Railway of Alabama was builder number 7009. The specs show that they were slightly heavier than the Southern Railway counterparts (Ps-4), and the driving wheels were 74 inches in diameter as compared to the Ps-4's 73 inch drivers.

  If you look at the picture of the Erie K-5 heavy Pacific, 2919 in your collection you will see the striking similarity between the K-5 and the P-74, which was the designation given the 290 and the 190. The K-5 had 79 inch drivers and a few other specs that were particular to the Erie's requests, but other wise the two classes were very much alike.

  The USRA design on locomotives was classic and beautiful. Lima built a very good version of the design when they built 290 and 190.

  The specs on the tender were changed on this copy to reflect the changes made on the rebuild done in 1988. The original riveted tender had rusted so bad that rebuilding was necessary. The amount of coal carried was increased from 16 to 20 tons with the water capacity staying roughly the same, 9500 gallons. The old brass friction bearings on the tender were replaced with roller bearings and the overall weight of the tender increased by several thousand pounds. It would have been nice to have had one of the six-wheel truck tenders which the Ps-4's numbered 1393 thru 1404 possessed. They carried 16 tons of coal, without side boards, and carried 14,000 gallons of water. They also looked much better behind the engine than did the shorter 10,000 gallon tenders of the earlier Ps-4's.

• 4-6-2 290

  Here is a picture of Atlanta and West Point 290 getting ready to leave the Zero Mile Post station at Underground Atlanta. This was taken some time in the spring of 1992. This would have been on one of the many Weekend excursions we ran either over the Atlanta Loop (an 18 mile loop of interconnecting trackage around the city) or out to Stone Mountain over the original mainline of the Georgia Railroad between Atlanta and Augusta.

The August 1992 run to Montgomery, Alabama with 290 was a real thrill. Running for the first time in almost forty years down the mainline which saw 290 pulling the Crescent Limited as her regular assignment was the fulfillment of a life long dream for many of us in the Atlanta railfan community.

I fired the entire trip down and back and soaked up every mile into my memory banks! We ran at track speed which for many sections of the run allowed us to reach better than 60 mph! She had a fairly loud exhaust, although deeper and more resonant than the bigger Freedom Train engines. The "West Point Route" whistle was one of my favorites. On the steam excursions which Southern ran the late sixties and early seventies, Savannah and Atlanta 750 used 290's whistle and I have many tapes with 750 supplying the stack talk and 290's whistle clearing the way! It is a deep, raucous, and melodious "steam boat" style whistle that was very distinct. Almost all of AWP and WA passenger engines had this style whistle. (While in Montgomery a gentleman showed us the whistle which came off of Western Railway of Alabama 190, 290's sister, and it was identical to the whistle on 290.)

290 could easily handle 16 to 18 heavy-weight coaches. She was a powerful engine. Running at fifty and sixty mph seem to be effortless and she rode well at those speeds.

The thought of having the closest thing to a Southern Railway Ps-4 in running condition and being able to experience what the heyday of steam was really like was almost more than I could stand at times! Add green paint, an Elesco feedwater heater, and put a USRA smokebox front on 290 and you have a reincarnate Ps-4!

Freight Equipment

NOTES:

• CUF - Cushioned Underframe
• DF - Damage Free
• AS - Assigned Service
• FE - Fixed Ends
• DE - Drop ends
• TD - Tear drop
• CF - Center Flow
• DPD - Double plug doors
• APK - Air Pack
• AP - Auto Parts
• DD - double door

• XM 38011 - Marshalltown IA - 1967 - {Jim Sands Photo}
• XM 38108 - Marion OH - 08/71 - {Lynn Roberts Photo}
• HT 46007 - Nashville TN - (Tim O'Neal Photo){Michael Greer Collection}
• XM 51116 - MONTGOMERY AL - 05/28/1984 - {GARY STUEBBEN Photo}
• XM 51120 - Binghamton NY - 02/04/84 - {Greg Dickinson Photo}
• XM 51125 - Columbus OH - - {William Brandon Photo}
• XML 51125 - Columbus OH - 06/71 - {William Brandon Photo}
• XM 51314 - 1992 - dead line, Montgomery AL {Ken Roble Photo}

Passenger Information

• AWP RPO 95 - Augusta GA - 08/70 - {Con Sweet Photo}
• AWP BusCar 100 - - - {Karl Geffchen Photo}
• AWP BusCar 100 - - - {Karl Geffchen Photo}

NOTES:

• 1 - Electro-Mechanical or Steam Air Conditioning
• SUF - Steel Underframe

NOTES:

• 1 - Electro-Mechanical or Steam Air Conditioning
• 4 - Steam Ejector Air Conditioning
• SUF - Steel Underframe
• A - Cars 59, 60, 70, 71, 75, 76 are equipped with wooden underframes with steel reinforcements.
• B - cars leased to Pullman Co.

Route and Interchanges