Bowery Lane #2, Homeland, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-21-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

After catching the Silver Meteor, I repositioned my camera to properly record this crossing and waited. After a little while more of waiting, I was able to catch my fifth and final train of the day: Amtrak 52, the northbound Auto Train, on its way north to Lorton, VA, with a pair of ALC-42s for power! Definitely nice to finally be able to catch the Auto Train, I've been out to the A Line for railfanning several times but ain't ever been able to catch it before now. After this, we continued on down to Sanford, FL, for the night, where we were able to meet-up with EthantheRailfanner and RaisedLetter.
The Auto Train is definitely an interesting service, the autoracks on the end of it allow passengers to take their cars with them, avoiding a large chunk of I-95 between northern Virginia and central Florida as a result. The train is an overnight sleeper service that runs directly between Lorton, VA, and Sanford, FL, without any stops in between, and is also the only intercity train Amtrak entirely runs east of the Mississippi River with Superliner cars. Apparently this service is one of the most profitable intercity trains Amtrak runs, though the specialized terminals it requires are probably why this is the only remaining Auto Train service in the country. If you include the autoracks, the Amtrak Auto Train is also one of the longest regularly-scheduled passenger trains in the world, which admittedly is part of why I waited to get it to record this crossing with, as I still needed to get action shots of this crossing for the site.

This crossing's another nice one, though, as you can see, it's been pretty well modernized by CSX over the years. The signals here were originally installed by the SCL back in the mid-1970s. It seems that, in the 1980s, the SBD replaced the bell on the far signal with a 1st Gen WCH mechanical bell (not sure if the FS or possibly WCH bell on the cantilever here was original to the crossing or not, admittedly, but I suspect it might've been an FS one that was). Then, later-on in the 1980s, CSX replaced the base on the far signal with the current WCH one. The crossing then remained unchanged for about two decades or so, but, sometime between 2008 and 2013, CSX replaced all of the lights here with the current LED Safetran 12x24s. After that, sometime between 2014 and 2019, CSX replaced the WCH mechanical bell on the far signal with the current NEG e-bell. Finally, sometime between 2019 and when I first visited this crossing in 2021, CSX replaced the mechanical bell on the cantilever with the current NEG e-bell as well.
Thankfully, despite all of these upgrades, the old Federal Signal-branded Walpar cantilever from the SCL is still here, along with the original mid-70s Safetran gate mechs. Hopefully these remain in service for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I finally got to record this crossing when I did.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/G-Q/ ... d/Bowery2/