SEABOARD AIR LINE


SAL #18, the Cotton States Special with Engine #260, a 4-8-2 Class M-2, gets underway at Birmingham Terminal for Atlanta on October 26, 1946. (Frank E. Ardrey, Jr. photo)

Parked beside the Seaboard's freight house in downtown Birmingham, a mulitple-unit set of new Orange Blossom Special E-units is on public display in this scene from December 8, 1938.  (Tom Lawson collection)    

SAL's Local with E7 #3023 departs Birmingham Terminal in this beautifully framed shot taken on July 8, 1965. 
(Dennis Conniff photo)

On a wintry day in 1963, E8 #3058 whisks the Silver Comet by the waiting Local at Wellington, Alabama. The facing double-red signal protects SAL’s crossing with L&N’s Alabama Mineral Sub between Gadsden and Anniston.
(Jim Thorington photo)

 

SOUTHERN


Double-headed Mountains #1461 and #1483 bring the Kansas City-Florida Special across "Puzzle Switches" on
their last lap into Birminghamon Terminal Station on November 24, 1946. (Frank E. Ardrey, Jr. photo)



Southern #4108 leads a quartet of FT's in classic A-B-B-A formation with Atlanta freight #58 past the train order
office at Weems, Alabama, on March 21, 1948. (Frank E. Ardrey, Jr. photo)



 With morning sun reflecting off her nose, steam-generator equipped F3 #6704 is glorious in her passenger attire
as she storms past Avondale Yard with the northbound Pelican in this scene from May 23, 1948.
(Frank E. Ardrey, Jr. photo)

INDUSTRIALS & SHORTLINES


A five-unit Birmingham Southern lash-up with SW1001 #224 in the lead is seen in the vicinity of U. S. Steel’s Fairfield Works and Vulcan Material’s slag yard. (Alton B. Lanier photo)



US Steel #126 is pulling pots at the Fairfield Works #3 furnace near Ensley. (Tom Lawson photo)



US Pipe & Foundry train with five units crosses a trestle near Boyles. (Tom Lawson photo)



Woodward Engine #41 is seen switching a cut of ore cars in this undatedscene from the late 1950's. 
(Jim Gibson photo)

BIRMINGHAM TERMINAL STATION


   On an early afternoon in the summer of 1958, two railroad workers pause for conversation beside SAL E4 #3008 while Seaboard’s Terminal switcher, left, and Southern E8 #6914 are napping. Things soon will pick up, however,
as the station’s “afternoon rush” of passenger trains is about to get underway. (J. Parker Lamb photo)

In this scene from May 1964, the Southern's northbound Pelican is about to depart from Track 8 for Washington behind E6 #2802, while to the right, two Frisco E-units are resting up from their morning run from Memphis with 
the Sunnyland. (Jim Thorington photo)


 
On August 25, 1946, Frank Ardrey snapped #47, with E6 #2800 still in its original colors and lettered for “The Southerner,” backing out of Terminal Station en route to New Orleans. (Frank E. Ardrey, Jr. photo)