Cannonville Road, Cannonville, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-9-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, a dying WRRS mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.

On the morning of August 9th, I got on up and went out to try and get some trains on the CSX A&WP Subdivision. I went down to this crossing in the unincorporated community of Cannonville for my first crossing of the day, where, after a little while of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: CSX M606 with a CSX AC44CW leading a CSX ES44AH and an SVGX SW1200RM on the head-end, and a CSX ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU. After the train passes, you can also hear the Cannonville DD reading-out for the train.
I must say, I can't say I'd ever seen a unit like that Savage Rail switcher before. Apparently it was originally owned by CN, who had rebuilt it using the trucks, frame, and cab from an EMD SW1200RS, while the long-hood on it came off of a retired EMD GP9. From what I've heard, these locomotives are nicknamed "sweeps" due to essentially being a cross between an EMD SW-series switcher and an EMD General Purpose (GP) series "geep". Either way, it's certainly a bizarre lookin' thing, and apparently CN only ever rebuilt 8 of these things, but stopped as apparently it was too expensive to continue rebuilding them like this.

This crossing is another great one, and I'm glad I was finally able to record it as well. The signals here were originally installed by the Atlanta & West Point Railroad back in the late-1960s or early-1970s, though, in the 2000s (it appears), CSX replaced both of the gate mechs here with the current Safetran ones. Then, sometime in the 2010s (and certainly before 2019), CSX replaced the bell on the far signal with the current NEG e-bell. Thankfully, since then, this crossing has practically remained unchanged, which is nice to see.
I'm glad to see the original WRRS mechanical bell on the closer signal is still here, even if it sounds very worn-out these days. Hopefully CSX gives it a bit of TLC rather than replacing it. Regardless, I'm especially glad to see that the signals here still retain all of their original early FS 12 inch lights, all of which are still incandescent! Down here in the southeast, 12 inch FS lights of this style tended to be used as overhead lights on cantilevers, when a railroad down here did use them, so it's nice to find some more ones that are used on mast signals like this, especially since these are still incandescent as mentioned above. I suspect this also means that the A&WP (and its sisters, the Western Railway of Alabama and Georgia Railroad) was one of the first railroads here in the southeast to go fully 12 inch, as the other railroads in this part of the country that adopted 12 inch lights early-on (the SOU and SCL) primarily/only used 12 inch lights as overhead lights on cantilevers for the first several years.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/A-F/ ... nnonville/