The Lafayette turn has just left the former CofG branch and is running on rights toward Opelika via CSX. Won't be long until NS spins this line off and it becomes the Pine Belt Southern.
For many years, Southern/NS served Lafayette (and until 1982, Roanoke) with a turn out of Opelika. By 1994, the NS had ceased keeping power in Opelika, so the turn originated in Columbus, GA. A fe... (more)
The return leg of the Lafayette turn drops down into Opelika on CSX's Atlanta-Montgomery main using trackage rights dating back decades to Central of Georgia/Western Railway of Alabama days.
Wood products - mostly logs and chips - kept the segment of the ex-CofG Roanoke branch between Opelika and Lafayette open until the late 1990s, when it was spun-off to the Pine Belt Southern. That... (more)
On a gray March morning, an NS crew gets empties ready to head for Lafayette.
