Cardinal Dome Car and JC Cabin

First a small bit of good news.  Amtrak is now attaching its great dome car to the Cardinal in the later half of the fall foliage season after the car completes its stint on the Adirondack.  The even better news that unlike the Adirondack the dome on the Cardinal  runs as the last car.  This not only provides better photos forward (as the hot exhaust won't distort the photos), but also a rear facing railfan window, replacing the one that was lost when the Viewliner was moved to the front of the consist in 2010.  So, if there are any C&O signals left in 2012, the dome car trip will be the time to photograph them.

Unfortunately, on a related note it appears that the CSX lease of its C&O Clifton Forge to Orange route to the Buckingham Branch shortline is not enough to preserve all of the classic C&O signals on the line (although it helps).  While looking at pictures from Charlottesville, VA I noticed that JC Cabin, the diamond crossing with NS, is being re-interlocked and with that the old C&O mast signals are being replaced by single head, 4 lamp darth units (albeit with what look like non-Safetran lamp units).  NS signals, which consist of a northbound Southern style cantilever and southbound southern style and NS style lollipop masts, appear to be untouched.  I am assuming the motivation is greater reliability of the interlocking to avoid delaying NS trains.  I will be passing through there next week and will try to get more information.