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OVERVIEW AND HISTORY

George Neuman Crossing was the center point of a massive Georgia Road mainline alignment relocation project following the Tuscaloosa, AL tornadoes in April 2011 severely damaged the Georgia Road mainline and Hurricane Creek viaduct between the town of Brookwood, AL and Tuscaloosa, AL. Georgia Road immediately utilized Norfolk Southern RR emergency trackage rights to keep trains moving in the early aftermath until Federal and State disaster funds were released for rebuilding of the toppled bridge and severe flooding damage in the area. Rather than spend the money on the bridge, Georgia Road decided the money would be better suited to realign the mainline to a brand-new alignment right-of-way from Brookwood, AL to the NS main at Vance, AL. This new alignment would allow access to the nearby Mercedes Assembly Plant in Vance, AL and parallel the Norfolk Southern RR into Tuscaloosa proper where it would regain access to its existing former GM&O line toward Artesia (Memphis and the former Illinois Central lines. Georgia Road had quietly acquired land for a lead to the Mercedes Plant for several years. The happenstance of the Tuscaloosa tornadoes provided an opportunity to bring the project to the forefront and enlist various Federal, State and Local entities to restore main line service while satifying a laundry list of changes and upgrades from Brookwood all the way through Tuscaloosa. The Mercedes Lead would now break off at a new station name on the brand-new mainline alignment called George Neuman in the rural hamlet of George Newman Crossing. From there, an additional three miles of mainline would connect and cross the NS West End District and parallel it into Tuscaloosa. Permanent joint trackage was negotiated with NS by funding a second mainline between Vance and Tuscaloosa to allow both railroads to run the section without delay.

George Neuman became the location of a three mile passing siding and junction with the actual Mercedes Lead that entered the Mercedes ramp from the east side to connect with the NS lead running from the Southwest. This sleepy crossroads that contained a historic rock store and the remains of a small turn of the century town became an unlikely home of the contract locomotive leasing company called Quality RailService, Inc. Quality RailService, Inc (QRLX) was an independent locomotive leasing company that secured its first switching contract on the new Mercedes Alabama trackage, ousting the then current Mercedes switching service with the promise of local management and control as early as the late 1990s. The small switching service was responsible for moving autoracks and coil steel to Mercedes and its neighboring suppliers.

As the 1990s wore into the 2000s, QRLX expanded its business. Mercedes named the small switching company a supplier of the year due several times in the late 1990s and 2000s due to its dedicated service and safety record in its first full year of operation. With executive management located onsite, responsiveness to the needs of Mercedes proved highly successful. Using this newfound clout, QRLX reached out to other industrial intraplant switching operations in an effort to expand business. At the same time, it expanded into the general locomotive leasing market along with its core business of intra-plant switching.

By the time Georgia Road announced and completed its new mainline and Mercedes Lead in 2014, Quality RailService Inc. established its headquarters in the 1800s storefront at George Neuman Crossing and built a small service facility to fuel and inspect its small stable of horses used at Mercedes. The Georgia Road realignment finally allowed the switching operation to move off of the Mercedes Property entirely. This diminutive corporate base of operations did not reflect the growing business, but true to its word to Mercedes it remained local, positioned off the wye that connected the Mercedes Lead to the Georgia Road mainline. QRLX locomotives now not only performed all switching duties at the Mercedes loading ramp but delivered cars to and from the Mercedes Assembly Campus to the Georgia Road interchange tracks at George Neuman siding and to the original NS interchange at Vance.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of Precision Scheduled Railroading effectively stymied growth as demand for railroad locomotive leasing disappeared. Switching services remained steady but the flood of surplus locomotives in Class One rosters swelled deadlines. This glut of power destroyed the locomotive leasing market completely, as larger companies like GATX, PRLX and HELM saw their lease fleets returned in droves. By 2024, the market had recovered somewhat, but steeper switching fee demands by railroads beset with runaway PSR opened new switching opportunities all over North America for the small, but very determined QRLX.

LOCOMOTIVE ROSTER

With its humble beginnings surrounding an intra-plant switching contract with Mercedes Benz in Alabama, Quality RailService, Inc. establish a no nonsense locomotive roster of basic, reliable and cost-effective locomotion. Ex-ATSF CF7 and GP7u units were acquired to work the contract, purchased at nearly scrap value from third- and fourth-hand owners and thoroughly rebuilt in kind at Stephens Railcar in Birmingham, AL. These units were typically normally aspirated (non turbocharged), liberated exhaust (increased pickup ability) with upgraded 26L brakes, Clean cabs and upgraded 567 series primemovers.

The first units on the roster was a single ex MidSouth (MSRC)CF7 and two ex Georgia Southwestern Railroad (GSWR) GP7u locomotives rebuilt and placed into service in 1998. Additional units were added as switching contract service expanded to other locations, including ex-UP SW10s, ex CSX GP16s. QRLX entered the six-axle realm when the BNSF cleared its ex-BN SD7 fleet. Second generation units from BN joined the roster also when Quality entered the gneral locomotive leasing market in the late 1990s and early 2000s.