A pair of Amtrak SDP40F diesels are in charge of train #53, The Floridian, stops at Union Station in Montgomery, Alabama, in October 1974. Montgomery Union Station was built by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and opened in 1898. Erected of brick and limestone on a high bluff along the Alabama River, the station also served passenger trains of Atlantic Coast Line, Western Railway of Alabama, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia, and Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The station had six tracks under a 600 foot shed, with a coach yard on the south end of the station as well as a Railway Express Agency facility. The station's design segregated passengers by race and incorporated Romanesque Revival elements. Amtrak service to Montgomery ceased in 1979 and Union Station was closed. (Amtrak service returned briefly, from 1989 to 1995, but Union Station was not used.) After a period of disuse, Union Station was renovated for commercial tenants. The train shed still stands, although tracks under it have been replaced by asphalt parking. Today, Union Station houses the Montgomery Area Visitors Center.
Photos taken in the Deep South--primarily Alabama and Georgia--from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Featured railroads include the ICG, the West Point Route, SCL, Southern, Frisco, and even KCS.
