NS CP-CANNON Railfan Hotspot Elimination

In a move that I can only rationalize as an attempt by NS to eliminate railfan hotspots, the eastbound position light masts at CP-CANNON on the former Conrail Pittsburgh Line just west of the Rockville Bridge, have been replaced by two head Darth Vader masts.  That's right, the position light masts.  Now for some time NS has been replacing position lights on the PRR Main Line, but they have almost all been of the gantry mounted variety and the replacement has been due to structural issues with the aging steel signal bridges.  In this case the two well painted mast signals were removed and a rusty three track PL gantry was left standing with no immediate plans for its replacement.

Like I said the only reason I can think of is that NS was getting tired of railfans driving up to CP-CANNON and framing westbound trains with the position lights.  I'm only half joking here because there are many instances where lost of people can end up ruining a good thing.  Anyway here is the video that alerted me to this sad event. Shame I never managed to go there myself for an up close tour.




Photo taken from the east end of the interlocking showing the PL gantry and new color light masts.