This was one of those truly remarkable railfan moments. I was lost, but knew there was a railroad yard in Corbin. I drove up the wrong road, and happened upon three SDP35's (#'s 4544 and 4546 trailing) running elephant style, departing the yard.

Numbert 4546 was delivered as SAL 1108, built September 1964 (c/n 29347) on EMD Order 7734. The SAL rostered 20 of these locomotives (#'s 1100-1119), designed for dual service. As it turned out, passenger service soon vanished, and these units spent most of their service lives on freight assignments. It appears to have been renumbered as follows: built as SAL 1108, then SCL 609, then SCL 1959, then L&N 7041, then L&N 4546, then SBD 4546, then CSXT 4546.

I would suppose to accurate, this should be listed as a CSXT unit, but on this photo date it had not yet been renumbered into that company's system.

I was on a business trip to Florida, returning to Chicago, and talked my employer into letting me drive the company's AV equipment back to Chicago, rather than shippng by air. We flew the equipment down and had severe damage, forcing the company to rent locally. I took advantage of my 'cost savings' offer, plotted every railroad photo opportunity en-route, rented a Silverado and loaded it up. One stop was this train, I read about it in Trains Magazine, and bought a round-trip ticket from Atlanta to Union Point. Finding someone to sell me the ticket was a challenge in itself, and ended up at the yard office. The next day I boarded (the only customer), first riding in the Budd coach pictured. It was my good fortune that the car ahead was a flatcar loaded with steel plate, so I spend the first part of the trip standing in the vestible of the coach (it was cold), which offered a great view forward. The crew noticed me jumping out at every stop and taking photos, so I was invited back to the caboose for the second half of the trip to Union Point, Southern Hospitality perhaps. I rode in the cupola window pictured for the rest of the trip, but had to duck down and get back to the coach during that last five miles, in case any officials were watching. The return trip was in a bay-window caboose, two of them were on the train back to Atlanta, my 'coach' was the first one.

The SCL was in need of replacement power for its Bone Valley (near Tampa, Florida) phosphate lines, and GE suggested road slugs for this operation. A MATE differs from ordinary slugs in three ways: their 65,413 to 67,588 pounds of added tractive effort surpasses that of most slugs, they are designed to operate at road speeds (they are equipped with Blomberg trucks with GE 752 traction motors), and they also serve as fuel tenders. Each MATE carries 3250 gallons of fuel that the modified U36B can draw on while under way. These remain the only road slugs constructed by a major builder, but that could change. The first 10 MATE's (originally SCL #3200-3209, later SBD #5200-5209) were single ended, and could only take power from the mother at one end. The second batch (SCL #3210-3224, SBD #5210-5224) are double ended, and can take power from either end, or in a third mode of operation, can be placed between two mothers and draw power from both. The double-ended MATE's have headlights and numberboards at both ends, the single-ended MATE's have a headlight and numberboards at one end only.