Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Non-Trip Related News

Well I am back from my 4th annual Amtrak Cross Country trip and while I was planning on a trip report to detail all the great signaling that is being destroyed across this great country I will instead save that for next week to clear the decks of some news items that had been building up. 

I am going to start off with two more NS examples of wasteful re-signaling practices.  Generally when a structure is made out of modern corrosion free materials you don't need to ever replace them, but of course why pay less.  Of course NS also seems to have a fetish for cantilevers so all bridges must go!!  The galling part is that these signals were supposed to be safe, having been installed just recently enough to last into the 2030's or 2040's. 

Southern Main Line, Linwood, North Carolina


Not sure what the plan is for the Birmingham re-signaling project, but this 3x3 headed beast might just be worth saving.


 Not sure how I missed this, but it looks like the heart of the N&W has been relieved of its N&W CPLs, including a brand new signal bridge installed right at the railfan overpass.  What a shame.  NS will repaint 20 locomotives, but not keep one interlocking at the spiritual heart of its system position lit.  To think just a few years ago this interlocking featured pneumatic point machines too.


 Here we see a piece of good news, a 3-track Southern Cantilever re-done with modern NS Darth Vader heads, Indian gifted as a new cantilever tower is in place to re-re-signal this piece of history.  How many times does someone do something right just to come back and do it over just wrong.  Give me a break.


 As I reported earlier JD tower in interlocking in Hyattsville, MD is being re-signaled.  These CPLs date from 1992 and again, should have lasted until 2032 or longer, but again CSX things signals with higher levels of visibility and less use of extraneous red is a bad thing.


CSX is of course also ripping out SCL searchlights in the Carolinas.


CN is now removing searchlights on its former Grand Trunk route such as the famous crossing in Wellsboro.  To think that the Canadian roads were one of the last big searchlight holdouts. 


If you are in a position to ride the Coast Starlight do it quick because that whole route is also losing its classic searchlights.


3 comments:

  1. To go along with CSX ripping up the old Seaboard stuff in the Carolinas, they appear to have marched closer to Atlanta on the Abbeville sub. I saw a new gantry with Darth Vaders at CP Tucker, SG 561.0 today (ok, so technically Atlanta Terminal sub). They were still turned away from the tracks. I intend to investigate as much of the rest of the line as I can later this week and see what else has been done. If you would like, I would be happy to share any information or pictures I get, with you.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that would be great. I'm pissed off I lost the signals near my friends barn at MP 510. They were darths, but still attached to classic logic. CSX wanted to reduce the number of signal blocks.

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    2. Just thought I'd let you know, I was able to explore the Abbeville sub a bit last Tuesday (the 8th). I sent you a PM on the railroad.net forums with more details and a link to the pics I was able to take.

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