Main Street #1, Hiram, GA

Post videos from railroad crossings here.

Moderators: freebrickproductions, mlgillson, TommyBNSF, Raco_GS

Post Reply
User avatar
freebrickproductions
Posts: 8443
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:12 am
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Main Street #1, Hiram, GA

Post by freebrickproductions » Sun Jun 04, 2023 12:29 pm



*originally recorded on 5-27-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

After catching NS 732 in Dallas, I continued on south to Hiram for one final crossing for the day. When I got here, I found 732 pulling up to wait just before the crossing, apparently trying to figure out if they'd be tying down there for a crew change, or if they'd need to tie down elsewhere. They wound-up deciding to tie down further south along the line and soon departed to go do so. Thankfully, where they planned to tie down at meant they wouldn't be blocking this crossing, as I was afraid they might have been about to do.
While they were passing, they met a northbound mixed freight, which was my seventh and final train of the day, and had an AC44C6M leading an ES44DC and a Dash-9 for power. Unfortunately, I very much was on the complete wrong side for this meet, especially since the lighting here would've been perfect for shooting photos of the mixed freight coming around the curve here. Ah well, you win some, you lose some, I guess.
After this, I began making my way back to Huntsville, despite there apparently being other trains in the area (as I saw a southbound mixed freight on my way back to Alabama), as I didn't have any other crossings around here that really interested me and there were a few traffic lights I wanted to swing by to shoot...

This crossing is another great one, and was definitely a nice one to end the day off with. The signals here were originally an early to mid-1970s Southern Railway install, with the signal on the far side having originally been one of those double-mast installs the SOU did around this time. However, in the 1980s, NS replaced all of the 8 inch mast lights here with Safetran 12x24 inch lights. Then, in about the 90s or 2000s, it appears that NS may have replaced the original gate mechanisms here with newer Safetran ones. Also, at some point in the 2000s, it appears that NS replaced the bell here with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. The crossing then appears to have largely remained unchanged until sometime between 2013 and 2016, when the mast lights on the cantilever signal had their 24 inch backgrounds replaced by the current 20 inch ones. Finally, sometime between 2016 and 2017, the crossing here had its masts replaced entirely, with the cantilever getting a new gate mast and the far signal being replaced entirely with the current standard single-mast signal.
Since then, thankfully, no major changes appear to have occurred here. I'm especially glad to see that the old SOU-era cantilever here still remains, and even still retains its original 70s Safetran 12x20 inch overhead lights, all of which look quite nice. Believe this is the only other crossing along the Atlanta North with one of these cantilevers at it as well. Hopefully these signals also continue to remain unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I was able to have gotten this one filmed when I did.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/G-Q/Hiram/Main1/
They/Them for me, please.

Click here if you want to submit crossing photos to the site!

Avatar by runesprite on Twitter.
Post Reply