After waiting patiently for a MoW crew to finish up their welding of the 24th street crossover frog, Q577 finally gets rolling again as it leaves Sloss Furnaces and the city of Birmingham in its r... (more)
With their air brake test completed, the conductor gets a ride back to the head end of his BNSF powered train as they orange units sit and reflect on the south bound trip awaiting them.
With a clear signal in their midst at the 13th street interlocking, this pair to GE standard cab Dash 8 models finally start to throttle up after staring at the sun while waiting for a west bound ... (more)
A colorful Q577 passes the Sabel Steel building as it departs the city of Montgomery and heads south towards Mobile.
Mirror, mirror... A surprising set of BNSF power will pull today's Q577 out of Montgomery, but must first wait for its conductor to get back to the head end after picking up a cut of cars ... (more)
CSX history is in the consist of Q577 today. The 8704 is one of the original 10 (8700-8709) SD60s purchased by CSX, the rest in their roster (SD60/60M) came from Conrail. Also, if you look close... (more)
CSXT 4617 and 2486 have just been cut off of Q577 and were going to stay in Calera, but due to an unforeseen mechanical issue, the units were coupled back onto Q577 and sent south to Montgomery fo... (more)
Q577 rounds the curve coming into Calera Yard with 8000 tons of freight. Included in the consist (4th out) is CSXT 4617, the only CSX loco still in C&O paint.
It's a packed house at the Calera yard, today's visitors include (from L to R) M713(Loco 7584), Q577(Loco 7602), Q520(Woodchip hopper), M721(Loco 7903), K988(Loco 5236) and K767(Loco 9003)
After dropping off M721's locomotives, the power for Q577 is about to recouple to its train and then head out of the beautiful town of Calera.
Q577 comes out of the siding and pounds the interlock with NS, while Mason "foreground clutter" Bernard snaps a shot.
Q577 heads south through downtown with the Alabama River in the background and Union Station and old train shed to the right.
Q577 crosses the NS interlock at the south end of Calera on its way to Montgomery.
The trainshed of Montgomery's union station, on the right of the photo, still stands as a covered parking lot.