Photos from Railroad Museums
in Alabama and Kentucky

While driving home from Florida at the beginning of March, 2014 I came across a couple of railroad museums and decided to get off I-75 and have a look. The first I found was the "Heart of Dixie" museum, the official railroad museum of Alabama in Calera. 

Heart of Dixie Visitor Center

The museum was closed for the season but it was possible to walk around the grounds. They have some interesting engines and rolling stock in various stages of preservation. The museum is located at Calera, AL 35040 and you can read more about it and see the operating schedule at Heart of Dixie railroad museum. It seems they also have a narrow gauge operating railroad called the Shelby & Southern.

Shelby & Southern Station Shed

Here are some photos I took around the railroad museum tracks.

Southern caboose X201

BN caboose 10522

Camelback locomotive

Calera diesel switcher 2019

Woodward 38 2-8-0

Switcher 2022

Open passenger car Calera & Shelby 1122

Me in yard with autoracks passing on mainline

Alabama By-Products Corp.
steam engine in shed

Kentucky Railway Museum

The second museum I came across was in New Haven, Kentucky on the way to Maker's Mark distillery on the Bourbon Tour circuit. You can take a 22-mile train ride through the Rolling Fork River Valley. If you want to play Engineer you can do so for $50 USD. The museum has some interesting exhibits including a small model railroad. The museum was open so we could tour the exhibits and the grounds. They have Santa Fe 2546, an F7A built in 1949, L & N 152, built in 1905 and used on the Lebanon Branch (out of service at this time), and Mon 32, a BL-2 built by EMD in 1948. It is one of the seven known to still exist and one of the three in regular service. More information at the Kentucky Railway Museum. Below are some photos around the museum.

Railway Express Agency building

The museum visitor center

Spreader and weed control

Model railroad and antique trains

One of the exhibits

Santa Fe F7A

steam engine exhibit

C&O 2716 K-4

L&N 770 diesel

Rolling stock at the museum

Passenger cars at the museum

Car shed housing exhibits

Some odds and ends

While in Nashville on our way to the Third Man Records studio and store, my daughter and I were blocked at a railway crossing for about 20 minutes while a very long CSX train of autoracks rolled by. I managed to snap a few quick shots of the grafitti covered cars as they passed.

CSX 397 on the head end

Conrail autoracks passing

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