Starting in the late 1980s (as I recall), SP power became very common on trains coming up CSX from New Orleans, but we did not see many GP40P-2s. I watched hundreds of trains through Opelika in t... (more)

Crewman rides the steps after dropping a couple cars in the house track.

A pretty healthy turn is arriving in Opelika after a trip to Lafayette and Roanoke. By this date, I believe there was just a single shipper in Roanoke - a cotton mill - and it would not be long u... (more)

A redo in the 1920s turned Central of Georgia's Birmingham-Columbus main from a substandard curvy, hill-and-dale line into a fine piece of railroad. One of the projects included in the rebuild wa... (more)

The Pine Belt Southern's Opelika-Lafayette operation of a former NS (Southern/C of G) line lasted from 1996 until 2003. The Lafayette end was pretty simple - work the woodyards then head for Opel... (more)

For reasons unknown to the photographer, 611's power has been cut-off from the train and eased down the hill to the the station. That B30-7 off to the right is - I think - power for a work extra.

Two stealthy C40-8s - just a little past their third birthdays - bring a Mobile-bound unit coal train across NS at Opelika.

Wood products are stil in the traffic mix on a lot of Alabama railroads, but on many lines the amount and importance of such traffic has diminished greatly in the last few years. In this shot made... (more)

An empty coal train behind a single GECC - usual practice at the time - sits in the passing track as Opelika. What you cannot tell from the photo, is that five-year-old 7521 is dead as a doornail... (more)

A GP38-2 teams with an SD50 on the westbound long-distance local.

The engineer bumps the throttle as his B30-7s clear the NS crossing, causing a small cloud of exhaust to float back over the train on an otherwise crisp January afternoon.

Following the trend set forth by other Class I Railroads, CSX has also decided to create special paint schemes to be applied onto some of its locomotives. While NS initially came up with a paint ... (more)

It’s been a long night for this NS re-rail crew as they’ve had to move a loaded tank car and locomotive back onto the track after the two rolled a rail in downtown Opelika earlier in the day. ... (more)

Newly cut in Safetran Vader hood signals stand tall at the now dispatcher control point of South End Opelika Siding while they display their most commonly seen signal indication here. That of cou... (more)

A fiery sky envelops most of the view in Opelika this afternoon as it silhouettes the newly installed PTC antenna and Safetran signals at the CSX-NS interlocking. Soon A746 will knock down this c... (more)