Sunday, May 10, 2020

MD and KY Survivor B&O CPLs To Fall

Two examples of B&O Color Position Light signals that held on after re-signaling projects felled all of their neighbors, will finally meet the wrath of standardization.  The first are GREENBELT interlocking on the Capitol Sub in suburban Maryland and the others are at OB (Ohio Bridge) CABIN on the Cincinnati Terminal Sub in Covington, KY.


GREENBELT was installed in 1992 to support a new intermodal MARC station.  High level platforms at GREENBELT would make the station incompatible with CSX freight clearances so two station tracks were installed within the limits of a new interlocking.  CSX was still in the practice of installing legacy signaling at the time and GREENBELT was therefore given modern style B&O CPLs in addition to other interlockings being installed in the DC area to support CTC and increased MARC service.  In 2012 CSX, backed by some amount of government funding, embarked on another re-signaling spree in the DC area and ripped out all of the CPLs save for those at GREENBELT, probably due to some disagreement over how much the state should pay as the interlocking's sole use was to support MARC services.  Anyway, in 2020 the issues were finally resolved and from what I have heard the CPL replacement project will wrap up sometime in June or July.


Back in 2018 I reported on the demise of the well known CPLs at KC JCT in Covington, KY and worked under the assumption that the adjacent CPLs at OB Cabin would also be replaced.  Well it turns out I was wrong as for reasons unknown, the CPLs at OB Cabin hung on for a further two years with a planned retirement in mid-May 2020.  Surprisingly, instead of masts or dwarfs or dwarf masts attached to the side of the bridge or the old gantry uprights, CSX has decided on some sort of super-signal bridge that has more in common with a tower crane than a railroad signal and might be the tallest railroad signal ever constructed



This will leave the single cantilever at WINTON PLACE and another adjacent Indiana and Ohio Railway interlocking as the only two remaining main line CPLs in the Cincinatti Area.  Of course that's a downright luxury as the ENTIRE STATE OF MARYLAND, home of the Baltimore and Ohio itself, will now be completely devoid of main line CPLs.  Think about that one :-(

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