The Flickr E100Vs Image Generatr

Pretty neat pair of EMD's for 2010 CSX shuffles around the yard areas in Montgomery on a spring afternoon. Looking sharp in the proper CSX scheme, the 8711 started out as one of the EMD demonstrator SD60s before moving on to Conrail as their 6842.

That's certainly no 14-mile long PSR monster stack train like is all the rage today! Back long before Hunter and his toadies took over at CSX a very short Q181 from Charlotte zips down the A-Line at Folkston in the spring of 2009.

Camera: Lc-a
Film: Kodak E100 VS

Blurred and possibly even shot by accident. Recovered from the vaults (date unknown)

Camera: Lc-a
Film: Kodak E100 VS

Recovered from the vaults (11/2004)

A nice EMD pair has drawn the Y221 Prattville mill job on this spring afternoon 15 years ago, as they pass through Coosa Street in downtown Montgomery. Check out all those woodchip loads in tow bound for the large International Paper mill, back then CSX still had a decent amount of chip traffic around central Alabama. Now about the only chip business that passes through the capitol city is some interchange traffic off the Sandersville Railroad heading to the Georgia Pacific mill at Brewton in south Alabama.

We still had at least 3 daily stack trains on the West Point Route back in 2010, and a colorful Q192 carrying steamship boxes rolls along the dirt road at Notasulga on this day 15 years ago. We're starting to get some stack traffic back off the new CPKC connection at Myrtlewood with boxes going to and from Mexico, but it hasn't grown into a dedicated train yet.

Original post from 2004 stated that it was "1 hour 7 minutes since I'm officially on a two-weeks vacation".

Camera: Lc-a
Film: Kodak E100 VS

Back from the vaults (05/2004)

Camera: Lomography Colorsplash
Film: Kodak E100 VS
Recovered from the vaults (circa 2008), never shown before.

Back during my years working in Montgomery, if I was leaving from work on Friday afternoon headed to my hometown in north Alabama often would make a quick stop off 65 at Calera to see if any action was happening. Between Calera and Montevallo NS has a couple of large cement customers that keep the locals based out of Wilton busy, and back 15 years ago they usually had good power. On this spring Friday A15 had gotten an early quit and finished up their afternoon work, and the 8743 is soaking up the golden hour sun in the small Roberta yard. A Dash 8 was unusual to see on these locals, but glad I took the time to grab a shot with these all being razor blades now.

Spring has sprung at Notasulga with the Bradford Pears in full bloom on a dreary afternoon 15 years ago, as a work train with a solo SD50 ties down in the short siding.

I never had the chance to run across the CSX 4617 while it had obtained celebrity status as the last unit wearing Chesapeake & Ohio paint years after the CSX merger. But still a "straight natural blues" SD40 was a rare sight even back in 2009 as we lucked into it shortly after getting a fresh coat of paint, leading local A774 out of Waycross for Brunswick. This was also the last straight SD40 on the CSX roster, and after a few more years of service was retired to a good home at the C&O Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, Virginia where it has been restored to its original appearance.

For once instead of using whatever two big GEs were laying around the yard, the Prattville paper mill turn actually had an interesting consist on this afternoon 15 years ago. A SD70MAC/SD50 duo are taking the train out of the capitol city and by the preserved Montgomery Union Station and train shed for the quick trip across the Alabama River and out to the suburbs.

It's really hard to believe these boring-ass CSX DC Gevos are closing in on 20 years of service now. Back in the spring of 2009 when they were still pretty new, a pair of them are leading Chicago to Jacksonville Q121 into the junction at Folkston on a spring morning.

Cloudy day, common power...at first thought this slide wouldn't have rated a visit to the scanner while going thru my images from 15 years ago. But after a closer look, realized this is probably the only slide in the collection that shows the entire setup of Southern Railway-era signals at the interlocking with the former L&N (now Alabama & Tennessee River) Mineral Belt line in Attalla. For all the time I spent along the AGS growing up and on frequent visits back in the years right after college, never made any special effort to shoot the signals. They were just Southern tri-lights that will be around forever, right? Seemed that way up until NS picked the AGS North as one of the districts to test out installing PTC, and once that started the old signals (except for a couple of stragglers) were replaced by modern "Vader" ones in a hurry by early 2012. Another lesson to shoot everything, as you never know when the next big thing will arrive and change things in an instant.

Given the dreadful weather and being a Sunday, I must have been headed home to Auburn after a weekend at the parental's in Albertville and stopped in for one quick shot as 164 heads north to Chattanooga 15 years ago today. At least back then those DC Gevos still looked decent even if they were as boring as they are now.

A spring afternoon back in 2009 finds First Coast Railroad's former MoPac SW1200 shoving a cut of coal loads for the large West Rock paper mill through the downtown waterfront area of Fernandina Beach. This is former Seaboard Air Line trackage, and the palm trees next to the nicely preserved SAL station add to the classic old Florida scene. Fernandina Beach is one of my favorite little coastal towns anywhere, and I'm long overdue for another visit and a few rounds of Pirate's Punch at the Palace Saloon.

Snaking it's way along the banks of the Alabama River, a loaded coal drag leaves Montgomery for the last leg of the trip south to the port city of Mobile. CSX still moves a lot of coal from the Birmingham area to the Alabama Port Authority's McDuffie Coal Terminal for export markets, as Alabama coal is used in a lot of metallurgical applications in South America.

This was a very common scene in the capitol city 16 years ago, but in the years since those vintage signals have fallen to modern replacements and YN2 AC4400s are starting to get a bit rare as well.

A manifest out of Nashville bound for New Orleans enters the north end of the former L&N yard at Montgomery on a spring day 16 years ago. That barren hill off to the left isn't a natural landscape feature but the City of Montgomery's municipal landfill. Only the finest infrastructure is found next to the railroad!