Some of my favorite old posts started with me chasing something down the street with a camera.
On October 23, 2006, a long yellow train rolled through downtown Opelika around lunchtime and half the town wanted to know what it was. I went after it for a picture and didn’t catch up until Gay Street in Auburn. The answer: a Harsco rail grinder, a machine that grinds the top and sides of the rail to shave off mill scale, corrugations and fatigued metal so the track lasts longer and rides smoother.
It is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing that makes a railroad town a railroad town. Twenty years on, the trains still set the rhythm downtown, and folks still stop mid-sandwich when something unusual comes through.
If you see a strange one roll past this week, take the picture. That is how this whole paper started.
Read the original October 23, 2006 story →
