Yesterday, for the first time, I ventured into downtown Anniston Alabama. It was cool to discover that the the old Southern Railway station there that serves Amtrak now still says Southern Railway System on the front of the building. Unfortunately the lighting was bad but here she is.
It certainly was, and still is. Anniston, AL is the home of the Anniston Army Depot. The Depot is the major, if not only facility for all US Army mechanized armored vehicle repair and modification. The grounds go on for miles along the NS tracks rail south of the Anniston SOU depot. The view from the passing Amtrak Crescent includes at least a mile overlooking the repair facility itself, then the rail spur and yards, plus the occasional switcher. Finally a few miles of stuffed and mounted tanks, armored personnel carriers, and armored support vehicles, some going back before WW-II. All of this viewed within a few hundred yards of your train window and at least a hundred feet above looking down on the facility which is enormous. One trip I saw a few dozen bare tables being loaded with tanks and other armored vehicles.
Important for other reasons too. In my college classes, I studied the PCB contamination of the various water courses and ground surrounding Anniston from the Monsanto plant. https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0400123 A much longer, detailed read if you're bored: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41271-018-0146-8
I do wonder if there are any private contractors rebuilding or upgrading equipment? When I worked at PC&F, (long ago!), they did such work on tracked vehicle. There were always APC's or some sort of mech artillery pieces on the grounds, in varying stages of reworking. I cannot recall if any came in by rail.
Ken, as I remember I saw no, or very few uniformed personnel on the facility the many times I passed. Appeared to be mostly civilian worker bees. My niece's father-in-law, an Army Bird Colonel, was the commander of the Depot many moons ago. So I assume the Army runs the place at the top and mid levels, and contractors manage and perform all day-to-day operations.
Thanks, now that you mention it, I don't remember seeing anything as big as an Abrams. Though to be honest, I'm not a big fan of armor and doubt if I would have recognized one. I'm just a big fan of all the exciting stuff we see from trains, old, new, or otherwise, especially big industry. Though I was very sad to see a whole mess of covered wagons being torched in a bone yard 25-30 years ago. Travel by train. The scenery is great, but the industrial side of America is wonderful. It's what made this Country great over the past 100-150 years.
