GP30 and GP38 2771 power the westbound local - with lots of pulpwood flats, as usual - out of Opelika.

Once upon a time, Opelika generated enough traffic that most freights would at least make a quick pick-up/set-out. That has just happened in the photo, and 135 is again underway for Birmingham, w... (more)

The Crescent - behind two E8As and two FP7As - pulls away from its Tuscaloosa station stop.

The Piedmont - with its usual cut of pigs on the rear - makes its station stop at Lynchburg.

A GP7 and GP35 team up to roll the local west. Think wood products are an important part of the traffic mix? Just ahead is the long, high fill at North Auburn.

The long-range local has completed its work in Opelika and is about to head west behind a pair of GP30s. Just a few months earlier power likely would have been GP7/9/18. A few months before that... (more)

Southern had 76 GP35s. Most had AAR Type B trucks, but five purchased for Central of Georgia had Blombergs, as did two units numbered in low 2700s. Here, one of the CofG units is powering the Ro... (more)

A GP38 runs caboose-light through Chickasaw after working customers on the far north side of Mobile. That's BN/SLSF/AT&N in the foreground.

The every-day-but-Sunday Roanoke turn is back in Opelika with a substantial train. The train used a couple miles of the Western Railway of Alabama's main to get to Roanoke Junction, where their o... (more)

Southern inherited a line from Columbus, GA to Montgomery when they took over Central of Georgia, but the handwriting was on the wall. By the time of this photo, traffic was shrinking as Family L... (more)

A switch crew works the little Southern yard just south of the heart of downtown Augusta. Used mostly for piggyback by the time of the photo, the yard was a relic left over from the days when rai... (more)

The eastbound long-range local rolls into Opelika. At the time this photo was made, their would have been plenty for 46's crew to do in Opelika. I doubt the current NS counterpart to 46 has much... (more)

An ancient geep - coupled to a much newer GP38-2 - gets some attention at Columbus. First-generation units like 8233 are still out on the main in local service, but the end draws near for them.

Way back when, GPs were much more common than GEs or SDs, at least in my neck of the woods. That made this set of SDs a treat on a nice spring afternoon. In just a few seconds the operator will ... (more)

With fog from Mobile Bay, the usual Deep South summer haze, and emissions from huge nearby paper mills, it can (or could back then) be tough to get even slight color in the sky. This day was shap... (more)