Did a bit more research into a small failed shortline in southern Alabama that's interested me for a little while. That shortline would be the short-lived
Pine Belt Southern Railroad (PBRR),which lasted from 1995 (with the purchase of the former CoG/SOU/NS line between Nuckols, AL and Hurtsboro, AL) and 2003 (when their second line, also an ex-CoG line, between Opelika, AL and LaFayette, AL was filed for abandonment with abandonment being approved in 2004). Both lines have since been torn up, but a few bits of them still remain. The railroad also rostered three different engines:
PBRR 2676,
PBRR 3059, and
PBRR 3986. PBRR 3059 eventually found its way to the Southern Appalachia Rail Museum in Oak Ridge, TN, while the other two found their way to the SQVR. It appears that PBRR (SQVR) 2676 was dead-lined rather quickly before it was sold off and rebuilt as a GP38-3 for the South Branch Valley Rail Road in West Virginia. PBRR (SQVR) 3986 was kept in service by the SQVR, who used it for several years until it broke down and the railroad sold it off to the HMCR, who still uses it to this day.
However, the railroad's trackage was a bit weird, as it consisted of two disconnected lines. Their slightly older one, acquired in 1995, was a Central of Georgia (later SOU and NS) line that NS had chopped down to just between Nuckols, AL and Hurtsboro, AL, though it was originally built and ran all the way from Girard, AL to the Mobile Bay (however, the Conecuh Valley Railroad in the Troy, AL area operates the only remaining 12 miles of the railroad). The largest customer along this line was the US Silica Company in Hurtsboro, who generated 95% of the line's traffic with just shipments of sand from their plant. However, in 2000, the sand company lost their last customer that received sand shipments by rail, and stopped shipping along the line. As a result of loosing the vast majority of the traffic on the line, the PBRR took this line out of service that same year, before filing the line for abandonment in 2002, with abandonment being granted in 2003.
PBRR 3986 had started out along this line when the railroad first started-up, but would later get transferred to their other line, which ran from Opelika, AL to Lafayette, AL.
Speaking of the second line, the railroad was able to acquire the former CoG line (later SOU and NS) between from NS in 1996. The line originally ran all the way to Roanoke, AL, but the portion between Roanoke and Lafayette was abandoned in 1982, with the north end of what would become the PBRR's line being at 2nd Avenue in LaFayette. However, the railroad interchanged with both CSX and NS in downtown Opelika, and as such, the railroad had trackage rights over the CSX WofA Subdivision between the southern end of the line at Roanoke Junction and downtown Opelika, AL. However, as the CSX dispatch for this line considered the PBRR's movement over their line to be of low priority, and as such, the railroad's trains over the CSX line would sometimes have to wait for hours at either
Roanoke Junction or
downtown Opelika before they could go. The railroad's business for this line actually came from the East Alabama Lumber Company and the Langly Wood Yard. However, the line went dead in 2001 after the East Alabama Lumber Company went bankrupt and was sold to another company that stopped shipping by rail, with the Langly Wood Yard swapping over to trucks for handling shipments at around the same time. Due to this inactivity, CSX eventually removed the switch at Roanoke Junction, completely cutting off the line. In 2004, the STB approved formal abandonment of the line, despite interference in the STB hearings from a few local governments hoping to turn the line into a rail trail. And on February 27, 2004,
PBRR (soon to be SQVR) 3986 made one final run over the line with the engine and a few cars bound for NS. However, due to the fact that CSX had removed the switch, the PBRR had to wait a few hours for CSX to reinstall said switch,
giving them time to touch-up some of the paint on the engine. A few weeks after, the line would get torn-up by a salvage company and the PBRR would be no more.
However, a few traces of both of the PBRR's lines still remain, and can even be seen on Google Maps, with the most obvious from both being the former ROW, which is still very visible for both lines on Google Maps Satellite View. But anyways, here's what I found:
"The Hurtsboro Line":
The former interchange yard with NS in Nuckols, which appears to still be owned by NS but likely hasn't seen any activity in years based on the conditions of the tracks. One of the crossbucks is also rather far back from the crossing.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3369235 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3375264 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3373627 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3373627 ... 312!8i6656
The tracks continue for almost another mile before ending in the woods, where the PBRR's abandoned section of the line begins:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3337019 ... a=!3m1!1e3
Strong Street in Seale, AL had some evidence in the pavement of where the PBRR once had tracks, though the satellite imagery here shows that it has since been repaved:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2975103 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2973469 ... 312!8i6656
And at the next street to the west, Old Seale Highway, there was a railroad bridge over the road here, though the satellite imagery here also confirms that this is now gone too:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.297082, ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.296836, ... 312!8i6656
Bridges on US 431 over Carver Road in Seale and the PBRR's ROW:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2941492 ... 328!8i1664
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2940109 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.294402, ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2943967 ... 312!8i6656
Looks like some of the rails still remain at whatever this long-closed plant used to be further to the west in Hatchechubbee, AL:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2692648 ... a=!3m1!1e3
And further to the west in Hurtsboro, we see that some rails remain in the road at Lloyd Street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2412143 ... 312!8i6656
Church Street to the west also retained some rails, but the road had been repaved by 2014 removing these rails in the process:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2407187 ... 328!8i1664
The railroad also crossed another abandoned CoG line just west of this former crossing, though nothing is left of the diamond now, other than the empty patch of land where it once was.
Same goes for Goolsby Street one block west:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2404197 ... 328!8i1664
Though there still remains a cut in the curb about where the railroad ran, despite it having been abandoned for almost a decade by then!
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2404085 ... 312!8i6656
Some rails peeking through the pavement at Main Street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2402665 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2401245 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2402665 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2401732 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2401732 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2401732 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2401732 ... 312!8i6656
Some signs of rails at Daniel Street one block over. They've since been patched according to satellite view, which makes them more obvious:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2399556 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2400509 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2399097 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2397776 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2399266 ... a=!3m1!1e3
There are also these concrete foundations near the crossing, though I don't know if they are/were related to the PBRR:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2400509 ... 312!8i6656
Abandoned rails in the road at Stovall Drive:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.239178, ... 312!8i6656
Further to the west the line crossed AL 51. Surprisingly this appears to have been the only crossing along the line (if not the PBRR as a whole) to have had signals, based on the lone power connection that was left behind. This and the ROW are the only two things indicating that the PBRR once crossed here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2361406 ... 312!8i6656
The former grade and the two stop lines were also still visible back in 2007:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2362591 ... 328!8i1664
Further to the west, likely at the farthest west customer along the line, some rails remain embedded in an abandoned driveway for a long-dead plant. This is also just west of the US Silica Company, which was the line's most important customer.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2317093 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2319238 ... a=!3m1!1e3
And just a bit further west, the stumps of some bridge piers from a bridge over a stream still remain:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2291333 ... 312!8i6656
"The LaFayette Branch":
Here's where Roanoke Junction was in Opelika, AL, where the south end of this line was:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6794126 ... a=!3m1!1e3
Further north, some rails remain in the pavement of Albright Road:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.709372, ... 312!8i6656
Some bridges over the line in LaFayette, AL on AL 50 and US 431. AL 50's bridge appears to be older than US 431's.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8828038 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8827725 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8827725 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.883088, ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8836076 ... 312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8836076 ... 312!8i6656
An old Southern Caboose and the LaFayette depot remain along the ROW further to the north in downtown LaFayette:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8978887 ... 328!8i1664
Some rails left in the road further to the north at Alabama Avenue, though satellite view shows that these have since been paved over:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8997663 ... 328!8i1664
According to Wikipedia, the north end of the line would've been about right here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.9049922 ... a=!3m1!1e3
And that's all I have on the PBRR right now. If I find out anymore information about them, I may do a follow-up post.
