Mainline Railroads

Rolling Stock

This collection is a sampling of rolling stock photos taken by my father in the 1960s and 70s using his 120 film Twin Reflex camera. Our home for more than a decade, many of these shots were taken in Huntsville, Alabama, as freight cars moved through that area on the Louisville & Nashville and Southern railroads ... but other Deep South locations are included as well. My personal favorites: Atlantic Coast Line #17302, a watermelon car found in the panhandle of Florida; and Brown Miller Company #210, a pickle car discovered near the Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern in Mississippi.

Boxcars

American Railcar Leasing #967

liquid gas boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Nov 1972 / JCH

Atlantic Coast Line #17302

watermelon car / Cottondale, Fl / Jan 1960 / JCH

Atlantic Coast Line #35376

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Jan 1975 / JCH

British Columbia #40745

double-door boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Jul 1074 / JCH

Central of Georgia #5505

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Feb 1972 / JCH

Central of Georgia #8718

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Oct 1971 / JCH

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #9626

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Jun 1973 / JCH

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #55187

boxcar / Meridian, Ms / Jun 1970 / JCH

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #56032

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Apr 1972

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #56899

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Oct 1972 / JCH

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #67494

boxcar / Columbus, Ms / Dec 1970 / JCH

Illinois Central #28042

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Feb 1973 / JCH

Linde Air Products #3035

liquid gas boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Apr 1973 / JCH

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis #18613

boxcar / Pensacola, Fl / 1959 / JCH

Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis #19095

boxcar / Pensacola, Fl / 1959 / JCH

Norfolk, Franklin & Danville #2361

double-door boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Oct 1971 / JCH

Peoria & Eastern #3609

boxcar / Decatur, Al / May 1966 / JCH

Norfolk & Western #55013

automobile boxcar (1939) / Huntsville, Al / Jul 1974 / JCH

Seaboard Coast Line #22323

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Jun 1973 / JCH

Seaboard Air Line #21645

boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Jul 1971 / JCH

Southern Railway #47349

Boxcar / Huntsville, Al / Feb 1973 / JCH

Southern Pacific #188664

Huntsville, Al / Mar 1973 / JCH

Wabash #20518

double-door boxcar / Sheffield, Al / Sep 1968 / JCH

Western Railway of Alabama #17793

boxcar / Pensacola, Fl / 1959 / JCH

Western Railway of Alabama #18177

boxcar / Pensacola, Fl / 1959 / JCH

For more boxcars see also our Boxcar Blog collection in Lagniappe

Flatcars

Erie #7012

flat car / Huntsville, Al / Dec 1966 / JCH

In the 1960s, my father worked as the electrical engineer for the municipal electric system in Huntsville, Al. In 1966, an order was placed with Westinghouse Electric for a mobile substation for temporary use during outages or line reconstruction (left). In December of that year, dad received a call from the Southern Railway agent that a flatcar had been left in town by the day's local, ready for delivery. The mobile substation was fresh from the factory, with masking paper still over the rubber tires from the spray painting process. Despite the fresh appearance, however, closer inspection revealed that the substation had been damaged in rail shipment to Huntsville. The Southern was instructed to pick up the flat on the next local and reroute its cargo to Birmingham for repairs by Westinghouse, but not before dad rode out to the siding with his Twin Reflex to snap a series of photos of Erie flat #7012 and its damaged goods.

Erie #7256

depressed center 8-axle flatcar / Pensacola, Fl / Jan 1959 / JCH

In the winter of 1959, while working for Gulf Power in the Florida panhandle, dad photographed the company's diminutive Vulcan tank engine bringing a large piece of new equipment -- a steam turbine -- to the site of an electrical generating plant still under construction. The crew pulled the impressive Erie depressed-center flatcar from the L&N interchange down toward the construction site, pausing halfway at the crest of the spur to rig up a makeshift braking system before descending the long grade down to the station. The car rides of four 2-axle trucks, with the weight of the depressed center balanced over each two-truck pair. For the complete series of pictures, see our Gulf Power industrial collection.