Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-12-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

I continued documenting crossings after catching the intermodal train, and when I got to this crossing in Woodstock, I found an autorack train dropping off some cars on the branch line here. Seeing as they were going west to Vance, I decided to head on back over to Vance and set-up, only to find-out they were going to have to wait on Amtrak 19. As such, I went back over to this crossing and set-up, and after a bit of waiting, Amtrak 19 came through with a P42DC leading a P40DC!

This crossing is a pretty nice one, featuring a pair of 1990s NS signals that haven't had any major changes since they were installed! Certainly quite nice to see another pair of these on the AGS South District, especially the mechanical bell.
This crossing also features four tracks at it. I'm willing to bet that originally, this had been a small yard that the Alabama Great Southern Railroad used to interchange with the Woodstock & Blocton Railway, the latter of which was a shortline that was built by the L&N's Alabama Mineral Railway between the two namesake towns. In the early 1900s, the L&N's interest in the Woodstock & Blocton Railway was sold to the AGS, leading to the line eventually being rolled into Norfolk Southern's system. Over time, the Woodstock & Blocton's line lost traffic, likely leading to this yard being mostly gotten rid of (one of the tracks is now a siding track, while the one closest to the camera is the north end of the line). Today, what's left of the former Woodstock & Blocton Railway is now just used by NS to store cars on it when needed.