i believe it was named Boyles yard between Birmingham and Tarrant

Pretty sure I found it. Couple questions though. What was the area that's now the CSX auto rack loading area, was that TOFC back then? Also, when was the Roundhouse decomissioned? It's still there, so obviously it was around, but was it being used? What was where McWayne Coal Sales is now? What railroad was crossed where Interstate 59 is now?

This former ACL, ex Atlanta Birminghan & Coast, nee A B & Atlantic line is still called the Lineville Sub after the crew change town halfway between Birmingham and Manchester.  There's a book about the AB&C and Trains magazine had a detailed article about the Lineville Sub around 1976 or 77.

Keep in mind that it was Seaboard System, not SCL, after January 1, 1983.  Might help you find some info specific to 1984.

Scott Chatfield

Pretty sure Boyles was the L&N yard.  After the 1983 merger I think Lineville Sub trains did originate there.

Scott Chatfield

So...after about three hours of trying to figure out how to extremely condense Birmingham into a few key scenes (note hair being pulled out in frustration) without it taking up half the bottom deck - arrgh - I'm thinking about modeling from Boyles north to what was probably the next crew change point in Decatur. There's a pulp mill along the route today, but I can't seem to find any info on when it was built. 

Don't 'ya just love this part of the process!!!

Or would Birmingham to Atlanta be better?

https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer

Search for Birmingham, AL and choose the 1981 aerial photo.

It appears the roundhouse is in use.

There is a large circus ramp on the east side, but I can't tell if its TOFC or auto, it could be TOFC.

Not a busy line in the early '80s, and ripped up east of Wellington, Alabama in 1988.  Now a paved trail, named for the old SAL passenger train that ran on it, the Silver Comet.

By 1984 I think the only trains were a pig train and a manifest each way, plus a couple locals.

The Lineville Sub was the busiest SBD line out of Birmingham because it had the BN ex-Frisco traffic going to Florida.  The ICG used to contribute traffic at Birmingham but they gave up on that line around then, and their half of East Thomas Yard became BN's piggyback yard.

With all the business that was between Boyles Yard and Bessemer you could build a nice layout just on that.

Scott Chatfield

Okay, so after taking a break, I got back on the horn and through a lot of sorting through historical ariels (THANK-YOU DAVE!!!) I haven't found much in the way of industry eastward until you get to Talledega. The branch leading off of the wye to the paper has a three track yard and switch leads on each end which I'm guessing is a storage/classification yard for a local switching the paper mill. The other thing I'm noticed, thanks to commentary on some random CSX photos. (thank-you for bloggers!) is that the actual SCL bridge in Bessemer was abandoned in favor of an L&N connection. I'm assuming this is why the Lineville sub breaks of the ABS? sub in southeast Birmingham.

Also, based on the fact that industry seems to be rather sparse past the Southeastern Food Merchandisers in Pehlam, I'm going to assume a local was run out of Boyles to somewhere in Phelam

So here's the next couple questions;

   1. Am I right about my guesses as far as the local operations or not? And to go along with that, what were the traffic levels for the bridge connection over Buck's Creek there in Phelam and what railroad was it?

   2. Was there a local that made it clear out to Talladega and swapped cars with the yard or was it just cuts dropped off by through freights?

   3. Talladega also seems like a reasonable place for a crew change. Was Talladega the crew change point between Birmingham and Manchester or was it somewhere else?

   4. If Lineville Sub trains were originated out of the new Boyles yard, then what was the old Boyles yard used for? Obviously engine servicing, as ariel and other photos I found show the turntable and turntable lead tracks well used. Were locals working the lineville sub dispatched out of the old or new yard?

I was a teen in that year, living along the old SCL through North Florida and I remember the Family Lines markings started showing up long before that. SCL markings started vanishing very fast once that merger took place, before 1984. By the mid 80s, you'd usually only see them on freight cars and an occasional locomotive. I doubt I saw a black SCL engine by that point. By the year before, the line was involved in a huge repainting and re-lettering operation as I witnessed at the yard in Waycross that year when my NRHS chapter did a visit to that facility.

By 1984, it was Seaboard System (having been Family Lines before that), and only after that was it CSX. So many people think it went directly from SCL to CSX, and it didn't. Mind you, at the time I didn't realize all this was a sequence to create CSX that had been underway for a few years to that point, to merge Seaboard into Chessie.

Now, all that said, I have seen very few efforts to model this railroad at any segment in that timeframe, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what you get rolling!

You can never have too much detail or too many trees on a layout.