Turntable: (Satellite, a turntable on the northwest side of the yard is now gone.)
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| Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted Around 1950 IC Mikado 1708 switches the yard at Birmingham. IC's engine facility is off to the left, and the bridge over Village Creek is in the right foreground. Birmingham is known as the "Magic City" for it seemed to appear out of nowhere, as if by magic. In 1880 the city's population was 3,086, but by 1900 that number had jumped to 38,415, and by 1910 the city's population would boom to 132,685 persons. This population boom was fueled by the discovery of large deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone in and around the city. These are the primary ingredients in making steel, and several massive steel mills were built in the area. The city's dramatic growth attracted attention from several railroads, including the IC. Around 1905 the IC began making plans for a 200+ mile extension from Jackson, TN, south to Birmingham. But to keep costs down, IC planned to rely mostly on trackage rights over other railroads. Beginning at Jackson, TN, the IC laid approximately 2 miles of tracks south to a connection with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad tracks at Perry, TN (sometimes called Perry Switch). IC would use the M&O for 56 miles to Corinth, MS. The IC built 78 miles of new track between Corinth and Haleyville, AL, where the IC joined the Southern Railway. For the next 41 miles IC trains would use SR tracks to Jasper, AL, where they would enter the Frisco for the final 36 miles into Birmingham. On the outskirts of Birmingham, at East Thomas, the IC built a freight yard that was shared by the Frisco. Freight service began on April 19, 1908, and passenger service was inaugurated on May 31, 1908. Passenger trains through Birmingham during the early 1950's included the "Seminole" and the "City of Miami". According to the November, 1950, issue of "Illinois Central Magazine" scheduled southbound freight trains included SE-1 and CB-9, plus FB-5. The latter train was inaugurated in August, 1948, and handled Memphis-Birmingham traffic that previously had been handed over the Southern Railway at Memphis, and then handed back to the IC at Corinth, MS. Northbound freight trains included BC2 and BC4. Traffic on the Birmingham line remained steady into the 1970's. But in the mid-1980's ICG began paring itself down to a Chicago-New Orleans system that would make the road more attractive to buyers. In 1988 the line from Birmingham to Fulton, KY, was sold to the Norfolk Southern, which envisioned using the line as a shortcut for traffic moving between Birmingham and St. Louis. NS trains would run over the line to Fulton, then get on the ICG and run north to Centralia, IL, and then join the ex-SR line to St. Louis. However, those plans were shelved after NS's trains between Fulton and Centralia were routinely delayed. Today, the Fulton-Corinth segment is leased by NS to the West Tennessee Railroad. I.C.R.R. Birmingham AL. I.C. 2-8-2 Mike #1708 switching in Big "B" Yard (1950) Cliff Downey Collection |
Andrew Waldo posted two photos with the comment:
IC Roundhouse, East Thomas Yard, Birmingham. The Illinois Central Railroad installed this 20-stall roundhouse and 75' turntable run by an "Air Tractor" with a brick-paved concrete pit in 1908.The photograph was taken on 10 January 1917.Photo Credit: National Archives & Records Administration, ICC Engineering Field Notes, Illinois Central Railroad, Alabama. Digital Image Collection of Andrew Waldo.For high-resolution scans in archival .tif format, PM me. Note: Most of my posted photos have been re-sized, grayscale-adjusted and slightly sharpened. Very few of the high-resolution scans have been altered.
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Andrew Waldo posted three photos with the comment:
Illinois Central Shops, East Thomas Yard, Birmingham. These three photographs show the Illinois Central's pump house, water tank and sand house (2 views) at Birmingham Terminal. All were constructed in 1908 and photographed 8-10 January 1917.Photo Credit: National Archives & Records Administration, ICC Engineering Field Notes, Illinois Central Railroad, Alabama. Digital Image Collection of Andrew Waldo.For high-resolution scans in archival .tif format, PM me. Note: Most of my posted photos have been re-sized, grayscale-adjusted and slightly sharpened. Very few of the high-resolution scans have been altered.
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Note that the cuts of cars on the left side carry vehicles. And that there are a lot of cars parked on the left side. That is because that is the BNSF auto facility.
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| Street View, Feb 2019 |
When I first read the comment in the following post, my reaction was what was BN doing this far south. Then I remembered that the BN merger included Frisco and that Frisco terminated in Birmingham.
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| William Davis posted Late 90’s; The BN Transfer Job heads back to East Thomas Yard ( BN’s Birmingham Terminal ) after interchanging with NS, as they pass by the Sloss Furnace Museum in Birmingham, AL. with a Santa Fe GP30u leading a Santa Fe GP20. |
The name "ST LOUIIS BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN SAN FRANCISCO" confused me. But after looking at some older topo maps, I think this stretch of track was used by both the Frisco and the IC. The names "Birmingham" and "Southern" come from an ancestor railroad of the IC.
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| 1959 Birmingham North Quad @ 24,000 |
The key on this BNSF map labels the green lines as "handling carrier" and the dotted orange line as "haulage agreement."
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| BNSF-network-map |
I was surprised by the liveries in this scene. It made me check the date of the video, which was 2017. The green BN loco and the H1 loco are rare in the 21st Century, but the blue Smurf loco is really rare. I don't remember seeing a blue BNSF locomotive in real life, and I've lived by the Racetrack (CB&Q in Chicagoland) since 1976.
This 32:40 video about railroading in Birmingham starts with the East Thomas Yard. It shows a Smurf loco being used for switching.
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