Gaston Westbrook Avenue, Emerson, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 1-11-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I chased M647 down to Marietta, I decided to head back north a bit and went for this crossing in Emerson, mainly to avoid a traffic jam on I-75 North. I was able to make my way up to this crossing, where I documented the upgrades to it and got to waiting for my next train.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Unfortunately, it seems that, after I chased M647, the CSX W&A Subdivision went completely dead, at least south of Cartersville. Thankfully, at around sunset and about four hours after I last saw M647, I started hearing an M583 making its way across Cartersville. Thankfully, it seems it didn't have to work Cartersville on this day, so, upon hearing the readout of the Cartersville DD for it, I restarted my camera, and, just a few minutes later, this CSX M583 came rolling through with an ES44AH leading an ET44AH and a GP38-2 for power! It seems this train needed all of the horsepower it could get, as even the Geep, which no doubt was supposed to be dead-in-tow to the yard it was heading to next, was online and making a good roar trying to help pull this mixed freight! After this, I got some gas and headed on back home to Huntsville for the evening.

This crossing's a pretty nice one, and one I'm glad I was able to end my day off with. The signals here appear to be a 1990s CSX install, either from the mid-90s with the closer gate mech being replaced in the 2000s, or from the latter-half of the mid-90s just after the "2000s-style" of Safetran gate mech came out. Either way, sometime between EthantheRailfanner's visit to this crossing in 2019 (his video of which can be seen here) and 2021, CSX sadly replaced the original WCH mechanical bell on the far signal with the current NEG e-bell. Then, in early-2022, alongside the rest of the crossings on the CSX W&A Subdivision, this crossing was upgraded to LED. Thankfully, since then, no further major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing, with the closer signal still retaining its original WCH mechanical bell. This bell still sounds fairly decent, so hopefully it'll remain around here for a long time to come. Sadly, it appears that all of the mechanical bell pairs on the W&A Subdivision are no more, as the others I remember seeing have either had one of the bells replaced with an NEG e-bell, and/or the signals at them replaced entirely.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/A-F/E ... Westbrook/