High Iron Travel's "Southern Explorer"
Rare Mileage Excursion
May 25-30, 2010
Part 4, Columbus, Miss.-Fountain, Ala.
| After spending the night on BNSF track at Columbus, Miss., we headed south the next morning to Fountain, Ala., headquarters of RailAmerica's Alabama & Gulf Coast (AGR), which runs from Amory, Miss., to Pensacola, Fla., on the former Frisco, later BN. BNSF has spun off the line in segments, and now owns Amory-Columbus only, on which AGR has trackage rights. The KCS SD50 which brought us up from Meridian, Miss., has exchanged parking spots in a nearby siding with Florida East Coast GP40 443, one of several from that sister RailAmerica road on the AGR. The consist will run "backward" southbound and "properly" northbound. |
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| A friendly local fan took Reg Mitchell, of suburban Washington, DC, and me over to the Columbus & Greenville shops a few blocks away to see the first Baldwin road-switcher ever built, which C&G gutted but on display. C&G, or CAGY as it now is known, is a Genesee & Wyoming road. |
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| AGR engineer (and fan) Howard Keith (4th from left) led those of us interested out for a photo line for when AGR freight 210 met our train at Forreston, Miss. It was led by an ex-Soo SD60 owned by a lease outfit and two yellow FEC SD40-2's. From left are Rich Copeland of Philadelphia; Tony Marciando; Ed Graham of the S.F. Bay Area; Keith; Mitchell; Rob Mandeville of Philadelphis; Sy Reich of New York; Joe Maloney of Virginia; and John Atherton of New York. |
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| Our train just fit in the passing siding up against the tank car, which we did not have to shove at all. |
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| Demopolis, Ala., was a quick crew lunch and photo-op stop. Note the safety banner has both RA and FEC emblems. |
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| AGR's only RA-painted unit is this GP40, assigned to switch the paper mill near MacMillan, Ala., and perfectly posed for a vestibule shot. Our stop was only for watering down a hot generator on the dome car. |
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| The long Alabama River bridge; west-end trestle may be a half-mile long timber structure. |
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| Unloading at Fountain, HQ for the road. |
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| This is the General Offices. They had Chamber of commerce goodie bags for us, plus refreshments. |
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| Nice emblem! |
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| The lines when under BN management. |  |
| We took a bus the short way into Monroeville. The old courthouse is now a museum, which we toured. Town is home to writers Truman Capote and Harper Lee, who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1960. |
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| Judge Copeland hammers on poor defendant Capt. Phil Bush. GUILTY! |
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| Jury and gallery are dismissed! This courthouse was not used in the filming, of which none was done in Monroeville. Hollywood forces constructed an accurate replica of this courtroom. |
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