Biden is now over 10,000 votes ahead in Georgia with counting all but done. It's going to a recount, but never mind, I'll keep my promise/threat. Here is (almost) EVERY RAIL PHOTO I HAVE EVER TAKEN IN GEORGIA.

You might find this doubly enjoyable if you're also an REM fan. https://twitter.com/DrDreHistorian/status/1324658227674411008

I've been to Georgia twice. I can't find pics from a brief visit in 2005, but I'm pretty sure the only trains I saw that day were on the Tennessee side of the border. My other visit was 13–14 March 2017. Here is EVERYTHING from that trip except duplicates and overly blurry shots.

I was not meant to visit Atlanta, just fly out on 14/03. But when I got to the airport from Athens, snowstorms elsewhere had thrown flights into disarray and I had a whole day to kill. First: quick shots at MARTA airport station, with ATL SkyTrain adjacent. Low light a challenge.

First order of business: a ride on the Atlanta Streetcar's single-track counter-clockwise downtown loop, which opened in 2014. Here is the Peachtree Center stop.

Here comes the tram, a Siemens S70. Atlanta has four of them, comprising the entire fleet at the moment. This is the first tramway in Atlanta since its original system closed in 1949.

All aboard! A couple of shots of the Centennial Olympic Park stop, as seen from the tram, and passing another tram where the loop converges at Woodruff Park. (It's kind of a figure eight really.)

Looking along the tram tracks to the church where Martin Luther King Jr was a pastor; two shots of the maintenance facility underneath a motorway; Woodruff Park stop.

I warned you this would be *every* pic. Slightly diff angle at Woodruff Park; tram tracks; interior of MARTA train to the airport. Last pic taken the previous day: railway through Athens, seen from Oconee St. Streetview suggests the wagons in the distance haven't moved in years.

That's it for active rail transport. The rest of the thread contains more photos than I imagine even REM's most devoted fans want of the "Murmur trestle", the bridge depicted on the back cover of the band's debut album. I made a point of photographing every angle. First glimpses!

The Georgia Railroad opened the trestle bridge in 1883. This railway ran from Athens to Augusta and began carrying passengers from Athens in 1841—but its station was on the edge of town. The trestle allowed it to run to a station located more centrally.

The Georgia Railroad was originally built to 1524mm (5') broad gauge. Wikipedia tells me it was not converted to 1435mm (4'8.5") international standard gauge until May 1886, when Southern railways en masse converted their gauge.

So, that would mean the trestle had broad gauge tracks during its first three years of operation, and was standard gauge from mid-1886.

The Georgia Railroad was the first to serve Athens, but it was soon outshone by other railway companies. Nonetheless, trains used the trestle for over a century.

I wandered a bit along Trail Creek taking shots when I noticed the path in the last photo. I thought I might as well follow it...

...and I emerged on the old trackbed at the western end of the bridge! It transpires that the disused railway formation was being turned into a walking and cycling path, the Firefly Trail.

This was a really cool angle of the bridge. I took... a bunch of very similar shots. Don't say I am not coming good on my completist promise in the original tweet.

I made a point of touching the bridge's timber, for posterity's sake or something. And then I put my zoom lens to good use. As you can see, the bridge does not quite go all the way—a section on the far side is now missing. We'll get there shortly.

Last photo in this tweet is the view of Trail Creek and Dudley Park from the railway formation.

Back down to the base of the bridge. Not sure I was actually meant to have gone up there, I got the impression it should've been closed to public access, a couple of other possible exits were blocked off, but nothing and nobody stopped me.

Fucking hell I took a lot of photos of this bridge didn't I.

This was, of course, a Pilgrimage (sorry), so as required by law I was listening to the appropriate music. I also took selfies, of course.

I didn't actually finish telling the history of the Georgia Railroad and the trestle, did I? The company's charter required it to offer passenger trains every day except Sunday on all its lines. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad acquired a controlling interest in 1902.

Right, here is the other end of the trestle! The portion over South Poplar St is long gone. There is a good little explanatory sign here about the bridge's history and its REM connection. When Murmur came out in April 1983, the bridge was still in use—but not for long.

Georgia Railroad's passenger services contracted heavily during the 1950s and 1960s. The last intercity train of any note to use this line ended in 1969. But the charter requirement meant passenger carriages were attached to some goods trains well into the 1970s.

Welp, I'm reached the maximum amount of tweets you can thread together at once. Here is more of the severed end of the Murmur trestle, and I'll finish the thread after dinner. Do not doubt my thoroughness!

Let's polish this off! I've struggled to find info online of when exactly the Georgia Railroad stopped attaching a passenger carriage to some goods trains into Athens. It might have been as late as 1980 or even 1982? Perhaps a knowledgeable person out there can clarify.

In 1967, the Atlantic Coast Line merged with its old rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, to form the Seaboard Coast Line. This was the beginning of the end for the Georgia Railroad, though it remained a subsidiary within the "Family Lines System" for now.

The name Seaboard Air Line Railroad in the last tweet might have piqued your curiosity. Before an airline meant a company flying aeroplanes, an "air line" was a term for a direct railway line—think "as the crow flies".

The Seaboard Coast Line merged with the Chessie System in 1980 to form today's CSX Corporation. In 1982, it began merging its various subsidiaries into one railway company. The Georgia Railroad was the first to cease to exist.

The first view in this photo is Trail Creek from directly underneath the trestle. I found the old timbers quite dramatic, especially on such a dull day—quite atmospheric really, and you can tell I loved scrambling around finding every angle.

Imagine a train thundering above. When REM released Murmur in 1983, this line was approaching its denouement. Not only is the trestle depicted on the back cover, but photographer Sandra-Lee Phipps also snapped the kudzu on the front cover near the railway line.

CSX had little use for the old Georgia Railroad line into Athens. The last goods train ran in 1984 and the trestle fell into disuse.

There were plans to demolish the trestle in the late nineties, which provoked an outcry: by that point, it had acquired the "Murmur trestle" nickname and was one of the best-known REM landmarks in their hometown.

The local county decided to save the bridge in 2000. I don't know when the section over Poplar Street was removed. By the time of my March 2017 visit, the council was concerned about safety—the bridge continues to decay.

Just loved photographing this severed end of the bridge. Atmospheric af. I understand that late last year the council approved a redevelopment as part of the Firefly Trail—sounds like it was a bit controversial, and I'm glad I got to see the bridge like this.

Normally, when I photograph a railway/historic site in detail, I share only a few photos. But a promise made is a promise kept! These are the last pics. I'm stoked Biden squeaked ahead in GA, I'm glad I got to do this thread, and I hope the pics/commentary have been interesting.