Weird Thingy-mabobs on flatcars in Birmingham

I'm new to the forum, and new to Alabama. I have been an ardent railroader in upstate New York for over 20 years. The last few months, I have seen countless numbers of flatcars move through Central Alabama via CSX between Montgomery & Birmingham with huge, hollow, bulbous looking things on them. I don't know how to describe them, but thought maybe they are fuel tanks for naval ships, or possibly some sort of enormous chemical processing chambers.... ??? Anyone have a clue what I'm talking about and know what in the world they are ? Thanks !

Also, any reference to railfanning on the South side of Birmingham (Pelham-Alabaster-Calera area) would be helpful.

~Bill

In this case a photo would help alot. We're you able to snap one? I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say, could they be wind generator parts? The housing at the tower that the blades and hub attach to kinda fits your description...
Mike

I agree, sounds like the wind turbine housings we've been hauling around up here for the past year.

Thanks Conrail... no, not really with a camera right now. But I think you might be correct about them being huge wind turbine generator parts. That was another guess of mine, but I was thinking they are too big and hollow for that. Plus I have not seen any blades or pedastal column pieces come through by flat car.
It's kinda fuzzy and hard to tell, but the ariel photo of the AMP shops in Dansville, NY appears to possibly have some of these things stored on their lot with other wind turbine parts.

General Electric at Laura Pt. Florida has been shipping Wind Turbine systems to a number of locations in the country. One of the routes is through the Montgomery-Birmingham corridor.

Hi, it does sound like the wierd thingy-mabobs that I have been seeing on the CSX around Atlanta which did turn out to be the windmill turbine/generators. I found this video on YouTube which showed exactly what I was seeing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pErxftYbEdg

Yep, that's them. Interesting. Must be some pretty big cranes or helicopters putting these wind mills up.
Thanks to Mmi16, Roadster, CSXdixie, and Mike for your informative replies.

FlatWheeler wrote:Must be some pretty big cranes or helicopters putting these wind mills up.

My undergrad alma mater put one up not long ago and recorded a fantastic time lapse construction video.....

click on Construction Video on this page:

http://www.maritime.edu/l2.cfm?page=169

Dave

Just saw a number of those windmills interchanged with Pan Am in Worcester last week. Headed to Waterville ME.

[quote="NV290"]Just saw a number of those windmills interchanged with Pan Am in Worcester last week. Headed to Waterville ME.[/quote]

And these (I counted 20) have just been unloaded in Waterville, ME. I watched a couple being unloaded - quite a project. I usually stop at the railyard a couple of times per week, but haven't seen any rotors arrive yet.