Bay Windows in Alabama

outhern #X561 is the anchor for the Veterans Memorial Park in the northeastern Alabama community of Collinsville. Situated along mainstreet just blocks from US Highway 11, the park is adjacent to Norfolk Southern's busy Birmingham to Chattanooga mainline. This line is the former Alabama Great Southern, later Southern Railway. Bay window X561 is a good shape for an outdoor display, featuring lettering and numbering in the correct fonts and correct red and yellow paint. Data markings are missing and the body has some weathering on one side. The caboose remains a nice feature in a community park obviously well maintained.

outhern #X403 is displayed near the former Central of Georgia Railway depot in LaFayette, Alabama, southeast of Birmingham, near the Georgia state line. The display track for the car sits parallel to the former CG branchline between Opelika and Roanoke. The segment north of LaFayette was abandoned in 1982; shortline Pine Belt Souther Railroad operated the segment south of LaFayette to Roanoke Junction until 2001. LaFayette was also the northern terminus of the tiny LaFayette Railway, also abandoned. The Central depot still resides along First Avenue, a few blocks west of downtown. As of 2023, caboose X403 was in solid physical shape but in need of a cosmetic overhaul — the red carbody paint and yellow highlights being severely faded from the elements. The short-body caboose was built new with only four side windows, and still sports all its major appliances. Technical data markers are still present on both sides of the car, albeit faded. A wooden staircase and deck have been erected at one end of the car. The adjacent branchline right-of-way is now completely covered with grass.

outhern #X513 spends retirement on display outdoors in the tiny northern Alabama village of Nauvoo. The caboose rests on a short display track adjacent to the former Nauvoo depot, a modest wooden structure with the classic extended window front and freight doors. The depot and the caboose sit at the southern end of a passing siding along Norfolk Southern's mainline between Jasper and Sheffield, Alabama. This is the former Northern Alabama Railway, later Southern Railway. X513 is badly weathered from outdoor display, but retains most of the signature features of a Southern bay window. Some lettering and data markings have either been removed or have faded out from rusting, but the "Southern" name in its correct font remains on the track side of the body. Accessories are painted yellow and the carbody seems otherwise intact. The depot property appears to function as a community meeting grounds.

outhern #X427 has found a second home in retirement, at the Stern Dog Park in Opelika, Alabama, on the midwestern side of the state near the Georgia line. After retirement, the car was first placed behind the former union depot building at the Norfolk Southern—CSX Transportation diamond, downtown. Here the former Central of Georgia mainline to Birmingham crosses the former Western Railway of Alabama route to Montgomery. During its placement there, around 2009, the car was cosmetically restored with accurate paint, lettering, numbering, and technical markings. Its bay window blisters were also painted yellow, mimicking the paint scheme for Southern bays assigned to local freight service. By 2020, the caboose had been moved across town to the Stern Dog Park and placed on a short display track near the small park's pavilion. As of 2023, the caboose's paint job had faded, but all appliances, markings, and lettering were still intact — including two of Southern's trademark safety slogans, often applied to bay window platform sides. Wooden deck pieces are still attached to the platform edges on the other side, leftover from the station display that included wooden steps. Despite its faded paint, the car remains an excellent example of a working steel bay window.

outhern #X769 sits adjacent to the handsome wooden depot in Piedmont, Alabama, a structure erected for the Alabama Tennessee River Railroad. This line became the Southern Railway's secondary line between Anniston and Rome, Georgia. The Seaboard Air Line had a parallel line that also passed through Piedmont, but both routes have been abandoned. As of 2022, the caboose sits in Piedmont on the depot house track — appropriately, on Southern Boulevard — likely just as it looked at retirement from Norfolk Southern ... plus additional weathering over the years. The Southern number is still blanked out, indicating removal from the roster. Southern lettering remains, but many of the data markings are gone. Despite numbering in the 700 range (normally road service cars), the car was last painted for local freight service — evidenced by the yellow bay window sections. It is missing its axle-mounted generator and a few other accessories. Blanked-out windows can clearly be seen along the carbody, indicating rebuilding from an older steel bay window.

ow lettered for Norfolk Southern, former Southern #X414 is on display on Norfolk Southern property at the west end yard office in Sheffield, Alabama. Norfolk Southern emblems were applied and the "X" was dropped from the Southern number, but otherwise the car remains a good example of service-era bay windows. As of 2022, the body shows some rust and weathering, but appears to be in decent physical shape otherwise. Although parked on railroad property, it can be photographed from the public access road off the main highway.

outhern #X692 enjoys a retirement in the shade of bucolic Caboose Park in the northern Alabama village of Trinity, just west of Decatur and south of the Tennessee River. The park sits adjacent to Norfolk Southern's busy mainline across the state's northern region, connecting Chattanooga to Memphis via Huntsville and Decatur. This was the original Memphis & Charleston Railroad, one of the oldest mainlines in the South and a basic component of the evental Southern Railway system. These days, bay #X692 is in excellent shape for an outdoor display. As of 2022, it sports a fresh coat of accurate caboose red with yellow accessories. Although the font is not accurate, the car is lettered and numbered. Data markings have not been retained. Couplers and roof have been painted black. 692 is a good example of a rebuilt Southern bay, as two blanked-over windows are clearly visible on both sides of the carbody.