Chestnut Street, Roanoke, AL

[freebrickproductions]

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light and RECO LED gate lights.

On February 11, 2022, I took a trip down to LaGrange, GA, for a few nights to see about doing some railfanning around there as well as finishing-out the CSX Lineville Subdivision for the site. On my way down, I was working on documenting crossings along the Lineville Sub. When I got here, I found that this crossing still had a mechanical bell, so I decided to set-up and wait here. After a few hours of waiting, I finally got this southbound CSX mixed freight going through the crossing with an ES44AH leading an ES40DC and an ET44AH working as the mid-train DPU.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, featuring a pair of old SCL signals from the mid-70s, which have been largely modernized over the years. It appears that in the 1980s or 1990s, CSX replaced the bell on the far signal here with the current WCH mechanical bell. It appears that around this same time, the closer Then, in the early 2000s, all of the lights here (which I assume were still the original 8 inch lights) were upgraded to the current Safetran 12x24s. The crossing then remained unchanged for a while, but in the early 2010s, a few more changes would occur here, likely around the same time. In the early 2010s, sometime between 2011 and 2014, the closer signal had its original Safetran gate mech replaced with the current Invensys Rail one. Then, likely at or around the same time, CSX also replaced the closer signal's original Safetran mechanical bell with the current NEG e-bell.
Since then, the crossing has thankfully remained largely unchanged, and retains one of the last few mechanical bells along the line in Alabama. In fact, I believe this is the only remaining mechanical bell along the Lineville Sub between Talladega and the Georgia state line. Hopefully it remains around here for many more years to come.

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-8-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

After catching the northbound intermodal train at Shady Creek Church Road, we went back over to Government Street to get some new equipment there documented (for anyone curious, the bell, gate arms, and gate lights there were replaced). While there, I saw another northbound was lined through Roanoke, so I decided to hop over to this crossing and set-up for it. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch my fourth train of the day: CSX I126 with an AC44CW leading a CM44AC and an ES40DC for power.

Since I last recorded this crossing back in 2022, CSX replaced two gate lights here: the closer signal had its tip gate light replaced by an NEG LED gate light, while the far signal had its NEG LED gate light replaced by a RECO LED gate light. Thankfully, the WCH mechanical bell at this crossing is still here, though unfortunately it sounds a bit more worn-out given that it takes a little bit to start when the crossing activates. Hopefully CSX gives it a bit of TLC, but I'm glad to see it's still working regardless. Nice to see that the remaining mid-70s gate mech on the closer signal here is still around as well.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/R-Z/ ... /Chestnut/