Hawthorne Street #1, Dalton, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-1-23*

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

Shortly after the southbound CSX mixed freight passed, the signal before the diamonds lined for another southbound to come through, so I went over to this crossing and got set-up. After only about 20 minutes of waiting, this loaded southbound CSX coal train came rolling through with an ET44AH leading an ES44AH on the head-end, and another ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU.

This crossing is another rather nice one, featuring another 1970s L&N install, which I believe was put in at about the same time as the signals at the neighboring Hamilton Street crossing were. These signals remained pretty much entirely original, until early-2022 when the original MI 8 inch lights here were replaced with the current WCH 12x24 inch lights, as part of CSX's LED upgrade to the W&A Subdivision. Since then, however, thankfully no other major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing, with the signals here retaining their original GRS gate mechs and MI mechanical bell. The MI bell here also still sounds decently healthy, which is nice to see.
Hopefully these old L&N signals remain largely unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record this crossing when I did.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/A-F/D ... awthrone1/