Sightseers' Delight
  • Home
  • Seeing America
  • Globetrotting
  • Travel Guides
  • Express-Telegraph
  • About
  • Donald Trump
  • Travel News & Notes
  • Attractions
  • Eat Drink & Be Merry
  • Smyrna, Georgia
  • Politics
  • Newsletter
News Wire
  • [ May 30, 2025 ] Closed Newark Liberty International Airport to reopen 13 days early News
  • [ May 28, 2025 ] State committee wants to make Georgia the best for tourism News
  • [ May 22, 2025 ] Survey provides insight into summer travel thoughts News
  • [ May 22, 2025 ] Rep. McCormick: Corp of Engineers closures reduced at Lake Lanier News
  • [ May 22, 2025 ] Frontier Airlines expands destinations served from Atlanta News
HomeGeneralDeFeo Highlights History of the Atlanta Northern During Speech on New Book

DeFeo Highlights History of the Atlanta Northern During Speech on New Book

February 8, 2022 Railfanning.org News Wire General

ATLANTA — Railfanning.org Editor Todd DeFeo kicked off a promotional tour for his newest book, the first complete history of the Atlanta Northern Railway.

DeFeo spoke to the Rotary Club of Vinings Cumberland. He previously addressed the group in August 2020, discussing the history of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and its impact on communities such as Vinings.

“As I started thinking about the legacy of the Atlanta Northern … it’s a little bit different from the Western & Atlantic because the Western & Atlantic Railroad is still around today. Its tracks are still there; trains still operate over it,” DeFeo told the group. “You could also look at some of the cities perhaps along the Western & Atlantic — Dalton, Kennesaw, Smyrna. Maybe even Atlanta and say that’s the legacy of the Western & Atlantic. So that’s the idea of the question of what is the legacy of the Atlanta Northern?

“I think that legacy starts with something I said at the beginning: ‘Maybe one day, Cobb County will have a mass transit option.’ When you look back, I think it’s particularly interesting because we have infrastructure in place like a mass transit system and then we decide it’s obsolete. It goes the way of everything that’s past its usefulness,” DeFeo said. “Then years later, after we remove it, we complain about it say, ‘we should have a mass transit system.’ I’m not trying to make a political argument in one direction or another, but my point is to know where we’re going, we need to know where we’ve been. As we chart out a direction for the future, we need to understand our past.

“We live in an interesting time for history. Too often, we don’t really know it, we tend to ignore it; sometimes we pretend our history is different from what it was. For me, history’s always been appealing because it’s complex,” DeFeo added. “There are so many stories waiting to be discovered, waiting to be retold in a new light, stories like that of the Atlanta Northern Railway. Maybe there’s a lesson in the past, in the story of the Atlanta Northern or elsewhere, about what worked and what we can take to heart as we build that better future.”

The DeFeo Groupe published the book on Jan. 31.

This article was published by Railfanning.org and is republished here with permission. Click here to view the original.

Related

  • Datelines & Destinations
Previous

Murphy announces end to New Jersey school mask mandate

Next

Officials say retiring debt will save New Jersey taxpayers more than $500 million

Related Articles

Commentary

Looking back at Christchurch and exploring the whole story of a destination

February 22, 2021 Todd DeFeo Commentary, Featured

Exploring places means sometimes looking at the less than idyllic parts of its story. As the world pauses to remember the deadly 2011 Christchurch earthquake’s anniversary, my thoughts turned to that resilient city.

Globetrotting

Don’t sleep on Cardiff on your next trip to the UK

March 27, 2023 Todd DeFeo Globetrotting, Photo Galleries

Stepping off a Great Western Railway train at Cardiff Central railway station, there is a palpable difference between London and Cardiff.

Georgia

A look back at the 2014 Atlanta snowpocalypse

January 28, 2024 Todd DeFeo Georgia, Photo Galleries

Ten years ago, it was embarrassing for Georgia when snow, ice and traffic brought Atlanta to a standstill.

Support Sightseers’ Delight

Click here to support Sightseers' Delight.

Top Stories

  • Take your bloody car to Invercargill; you won’t regret it or forget it
    April 9, 2025
  • Today, we’ll all be your huckleberry
    April 2, 2025
  • Why New Zealand visitors should watch ‘Pork Pie’
    March 19, 2025
  • Following a tragedy, it’s natural to speculate, but we should seek the truth
    February 2, 2025
  • Trump sworn in as 47th president, capping incredible political comeback
    January 20, 2025

Sign Up for Our Emails

Subscribe

* indicates required
/* real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

Intuit Mailchimp

Join us in the Cesspool

Join us in the Cesspool

Family Features

Loading Family Features Article

Encyclopedia Search

  • Music From Big Pink
  • Aviation Act of 1917
  • Rock of Ages
  • BioLab
  • George Kaiser Family Foundation
About Us

Sightseers’ Delight is published by The DeFeo Groupe, LLC. All original content (c) 2009-2024 The DeFeo Groupe, LLC, and may not be republished without express written consent.

Before You Plagiarize

Before you copy and paste this information to your website, please keep in mind this research took a lot of effort. Appreciate it. Learn from it. But do not plagiarize it. Yes, if you think we might be talking to you, we are.

Top Posts
  • Fort Jefferson: An unfinished masterpiece in the Gulf
    May 30, 2025
  • Greyfriars Bobby: A tale of loyalty and devotion
    May 27, 2025
  • Pocketful of fun in Grapevine
    May 17, 2025

(c) 2016-2024 The DeFeo Groupe, LLC. The DeFeo Groupe, LLC, P.O. Box 2714, Smyrna, Georgia 30081.