Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Looking almost like a caricature, with it's long sloping nose, Southern #2904 glides out of Meridian with the Queen & Crescent Limited. This was Southern's only DL-109 (they had a DL-110 booster unit, two DL-107 A-units on the CNO&TP and two DL-108 B-units on the CNO&TP). The DL-series was more like an EMD E-unit, where they used twin prime movers and an A1A-A1A wheel configuration (The PA was a single prime mover) and they used the old Macintosh & Seymour 539T turbocharged inline-6s. While the 539Ts had a reputation as being a rugged engine in switcher usage, they didn't like the sustained high RPMs prevalent in passenger usage.

Long hood forward. The Southern way.

A Southern high-nose SD35 sits next to one of Illinois Central's GP10s. These were a GP9 that were run through a rebuild program at IC's Paducah shops. The result included a chopped nose, the "frog's eye" headlights, and an "ox yoke" air filter assembly on the long hood.

A Southern freight crosses Copper Creek at Sperry, Virginia in October of '78. Why is there a boxcar between the first four units and the next three or four diesels? That boxcar is actually a radio control car and the units after it are radio-controlled helper units. Southern was a big innovator in radio-controlled helpers, essentially today's Distributed Power Unit, and built these radio control cars on the frames of retired F-M H-15-44s, Alco RS3s and EMD FT B-units among others. The radio-controlled helpers were usually spliced in the middle, but in this instance they are up on the front of the train. And that tall bridge to the left? That's the Clinchfield's bridge. Union Pacific #3985, disguised as Clinchfield #676, once posed atop that bridge while pulling the CSX Santa Train. 

GM&O Alcos hang out in the roundhouse at Meridian

One of the GM&O's weird FA-1s with the lower mounted headlight and the curved grille garnish like that on an Alco PA

A rare look at the back of GM&O #1900, the sole Ingalls 4-S built. You can see how the cab has better rearward visibility than any of it's competitors' offerings due to the turreted cab, and it also shows the rear compartment for the brakeman to ride aboard when switching, rather than having to hang off the side like on an F-Unit or FA

The changing of the guard. The old FA-1s are being put out to pasture for shiny new GP30s.

New GP35s peering out of the fog. It's interesting that GM&O was apparently having some issues settling on a livery, as the #606 just has chevrons on the nose, while the #644 has large GM&O lettering.

An old RS-2 headed to Okolona with a local freight. The GM&O had some of the best-looking RS-2/RS-3s around.

FA-1s headed to Mobile with a load of pipe.

A GM&O RS-1 and a Southern RS-3 meet at Corinth, Mississippi. I like the GM&O crew, with the fireman sitting on the front steps and the engineer with his feet kicked up in the cab.

A GM&O DL-105 stretches it's nose towards the camera. Check out how the numberboard above the cab is illuminated with individual bulbs a la a Lite Brite set. The DL-105, DL-107, DL-109 and DL-110 were all pretty much identical, with minor changes, but are all typically lumped together as DL-109s. There was an earlier DL-103b, which was actually 4 feet longer, used two M&S 538T engines instead of the M&S 539Ts in the 105-110s, and ran all the accessories off a belt drive on the engines.

DL-105 #270 stretches it's legs with the Gulf Coast Rebel. I like the propped-open side doors, providing the equivalent of 4-60 air conditioning.

The L&N's Azalean crosses the wooden Biloxi Bay trestle in July of '56

Bound for Mobile, an L&N freight crosses the Biloxi Bay

An L&N troop train extra passes a local between Gulfport and Biloxi in August of '58

L&N's Humming Bird crosses a swing bridge at Pascagoula

An L&N freight soars overhead at Nashville, TN

Headed for Nashville, L&N GP30s approach Wartrace, TN at dawn