Railroad Crossings of the CSX Charleston Subdivision
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- The CSX Charleston Subdivision is part of the CSX A Line, which was the Atlantic Coast Line's mainline from Richmond, VA, to Tampa, FL. The Charleston Sub runs from Florence, SC, to Savannah, GA, via its namesake city of Charleston, SC.
While this section of the A Line was built by two different railroads, both were under the control of the ACL by 1903, and have remained a relatively major rail corridor along the eastern seaboard in the years since, unlike the parallel Seaboard Air Line's mainline (the "S Line").
In 1967, the ACL and SAL merged into the Seaboard Coast Line, and in doing so, decided to prefix all of their mileposts with the letter each railroad started with (A for former ACL trackage, S for former SAL trackage). While most lines has prefixes two to three characters long, the two railroads' mainlines were just prefixed with A and S, respectively, leading to the ACL's mainline being called the "A Line", after its prefix.
This line sees a good variety of freight traffic along it, along with two Amtrak services: the Silver Meteor and the Palmetto. Traffic does seem to fluctuate along it at times, as some days you'll barely see anything despite waiting all day while other days you'll see a pretty decent number of trains.
This line is also the part of the A Line that, IMHO, retains the best crossing equipment. The small portion of the line is pretty boring and well modernized by CSX, featuring all 12x24 inch LED lights, it does still retain a couple of mechanical bells, one Safetran (on a late-70s SCL install) and one WCH (on an 80s SBD install), the latter of which is also at a crossing that still features a WCH gate mech. However, once you get across the Savannah River into South Carolina, the crossing equipment gets a lot more interesting fast.
In South Carolina, the line still features a large amount of SCL, SBD, and older CSX installs, with much of the equipment along it having been installed in the 70s and 80s, it appears. There's also a decent bit of newer CSX stuff, of course, but also even a good few ACL-era installs north of Charleston, though most of them seem to only retain the old masts.
There are plenty of 8 inch lights along the line as well, with most of them being a mix of WRRS, Safetran, and WCH 8 inch lights, though some Federal Signal, WABCO, Harmon, and even some ACL-era US&S 8 inch lights are mixed in, with at least one pair of the US&S 8 inch lights retaining their original vandal guards over the lenses. Even with all of the 8 inch lights, there's still a large number of 12 inch lights as well, with the line featuring US&S, WCH, Safetran, Modern Industries, Harmon, Federal Signal, and even RACO 12 inch lights across it. A fair number of these 12 inch lights seem to have been upgraded to LED over the years, but a good few do still remain incandescent as well.
As far as gate mechs go, most of them appear to be WCH and Safetran gate mechs from the 70s and newer, but there are some WABCO and US&S Model 75 gate mechs around if you know where to look. There's even still an old ACL-era WRRS gate mechanism along the line in Coward, SC, which I believe is the only surviving WRRS gate mech on the entire A Line.
There are also a good few older cantilevers along the line too, such as some Walpar and Harmon cantilevers from the SCL. You can also find a good few RACO cantilevers from the early SCL along the line as well, and there is even still a pair of ACL(?)-era WRRS cantilevers near Moncks Corner, SC.
Of course, there's also a good variety of older and newer e-bells. There are plenty of NEG e-bells and a good few GS Type 2s it appears, courtesy of CSX, but there's also a lot of mechanical bells as well, and at least one GS Type 1 (in Kingstree, SC). Most of these are WCH mechanical bells from the SCL, SBD, and CSX, it appears, but there are also a healthy number of 1st and 2nd Generation Safetran mechanical bells along the line as well. A good few WRRS bells, from both the ACL and early SCL, still exist along the line, along with some US&S mechanical bells, a few Modern Industries mechanical bells, at least four Federal Signal mechanical bells, and even a pair of US&S Teardrop bells installed by the ACL in Kingstree. These aren't the only Teardrops along the A Line, as a rather famous pair exists in Latta, SC, up on the South End Sub, but they're still rather neat to see, nonetheless.
All in all, this is a rather great line, and I'm glad to have been able to make a few different trips to it over the past year.
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Do have plenty of newer videos coming eventually, just need to get around to posting them. For the time being though, I thought I'd post this compilation of all of the Charleston Sub crossings I've recorded along the line.
@@elizabethsalazar2565 ?
Awesome! I enjoy this stretch of track and seeing the ACL main. Unfortunately due to health issues, it's been a long long time, at least 15 years or so, since I have followed it from Florence through Charleston to Savannah. Thanks for the ride along and full videos of trains on the Charleston Sub. That teardrop bell still active in Kingstree is cool!.
After watching this video, I certainly enjoyed seeing a lot of older railroad crossings on CSX still in service. I say you did a fantastic job.
Thanks!
@@freebrickproductions, you’re very welcome.
Been so long since a compilation!
I always like when you post new crossing bells I love your railroad crossing videos
Great video and happy July 4th!
Thanks!
Remember Mr.Robert is not going back to College until the job returns back in time so be safe careful driving and don't crash.
What are you on about?
Happy 4th of July buddy you did a great job of the Csx in south Carolina
This is exactly 1 year
Seems like a cracked gong on the close signal at 18:55. Definitely gives a unique sound
Great vid! Happy 4th!
Thanks!
Happy 4th of July! I got a WCH mechanical bell from the RJ Corman maintainer today!
Nice!
20:12 CSX 960
Nice video, And Happy 4th of July
Thanks!
The WRRS 15A on Country Camp in Kingstree (1:10:34) is not there anymore, both masts on the west side of the tracks were dumped for an entirely new signal, with dotted LEDs... (yueck)
As far as I can tell though, the one on Dennis (1:08:15) still remains.
Graham St. West signal (1:32:55) has also been replaced after it got filmed.
Yeah, I'm aware that the *US&S* Teardrop was replaced at County Camp Road, along with the one signal in Scranton.
Great crossings
Thanks!
It's the Train
20:12 *😊 DPU ALRIGHT ES44AH NY3B*
It's just a DPU, nothing to get too excited over. CSX tends to use them on their mainline trains.
Also, it's spelled YN3b, not "NY3B".
31:31 that’s not safe
Does any one know if there is a crossing on the csx that has a wchays e bell or electro tech LEDs
There are some CSX crossings around Chicago (such as on the CSX Barr Sub, IIRC) that have WCH e-bells for some reason.
CSX has never used Electro-tech LEDs, so they don't have any crossings with them. In fact, I think UP is the only Class I railroad to have used them.
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