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This is the former NC&StL, then L&N/CSX line now owned by a smaller company. The "main" went down Locust Street, one block off our main street.
It is still in use, we have a huge Goodyear Tire plant here, and the track services it and the Alabama Power Company steam plant. That is the Coosa River the trestle leads to/from. Big disagreement about painting the bridge for the last 20 years, something about the old & new paint and rust falling into the river, etc.
cool pics!!
i love the street running, to bad that cant happen by me
the fools here would park there cars and trucks on the tracks.
along with all there trash
Bob, very interesting pictures, thanks. I think that's the first time I've seen street track that are protected by rubber grade crossing mats. I suspect the street must have taken quite a pounding from the heavy trains and the local citizens complained about the rough track area. I imagine they poured concrete footings around the tracks to stabilize them and used the rubber mats to give a durable surface to the street itself. Pretty ingenious idea and a lot cheaper than most street trackage fixes.
That bridge needs some serious work. The usual way to fix it would be sandblast it down to bare steel, spray primer, and then spray paint. I'm sure the old paint (now rust) is full of lead and that's a big problem, since you can't remove it by normal sandblasting without running afoul of the EPA. It could be done by hand using small power scrapers and rotary tools, with a barrier hung beneath the bridge to keep out the debris. All the debris would have to be treated as hazardous waste, which means guys in space suits and long hauls to hazmat dumps. The cost would be extremely high. If that track is producing decent revenue, at some point, it will become cheaper to replace the bridge, probably with concrete, than to repair and repaint the present bridge.
It's been an on and off hot topic around here for years. I think it may have pushed CSX into selling this branch. You reasoning is on the nose, hazardous waste in the water is a no no.
The funny thing about our local area is, we have a former chemical training army camp where they keep finding live shells and cannisters of weird gas (even though Camp Sibert been gone for 60 years, and we have a former steel mill dating from the 1800's, so hazardous waste receptacles should be easy to find!!
Those pictures sure do bring back the memories! My wife and I lived there in East Gadsden while I got my Nursing degree at Jacksonville State University during the 70's. At the time that was the only degree program in the state that was geared to people who already were RN's.
Our apartment was on Robinson Ave, and was only about 75' away from the tracks. Not only did I see many general merchandise trains, but 3-4 times a week a huge unit coal train would run by, headed south. That train literally shook the house when it came through.
I even built a switching layout in the "spare" bedroom while there. Didn't get much of it done past the track laying phase, as school and work took up most of my free time. I did get enough track down for some switching with some cars and a few locos, but scenery was non-existent. It lasted until the day before we returned to Mobile.
