Railroad Crossings of the Chattanooga & Chickamauga Railway
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- Опубліковано 11 лис 2023
- The Chattanooga & Chickamauga Railway is a G&W-owned shortline in northwest Georgia and southeast Tennessee that operates the northernmost 42 miles of the former Central of Georgia mainline to Chattanooga, TN, between the cities of Chattanooga, TN, and Lyerly, GA, though the southernmost portion of their line south of Summerville appears to be out of service. The railroad uses some older EMD power painted in the G&W's corporate scheme to handle the freight traffic along the line, though I haven't shot any of these as I don't know when the CCKY typically runs.
The line also hosts two of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's excursion trains, which can be a bit easier to catch, the Chickamauga Turn from Chattanooga to Chickamauga, GA, and back, and the Summerville Steam Special, from Chattanooga to Summerville, GA, and back, the latter of which are the trains featured in this video.
The line was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1963, with ownership transferring to Norfolk Southern upon the merger with the N&W in 1982. However, in 1989, the line was sold-off to the CCKY, who has operated it since. Interestingly, I believe this is the closest shortline to me that operates former Southern Railway trackage.
The CCKY has 17 signalized crossings along it, between Summerville and Chattanooga, which feature a decent mix of older and newer equipment. There used to be another signalized crossing on the out of service portion in Lyerly, but that was downgraded to just crossbucks years ago with only one of the old gateless masts and the relay case remaining there. The signals along the line are largely a mix of older Southern Railway signals from the 70s and 80s and newer CCKY installs from the late-90s and newer, though a pair of old gateless signals from the CofG still survive in LaFayette, GA. There used to be a few other CofG-era signals along the line, all of which were gateless, but the CCKY has long since replaced them, or downgraded them in the case of the one OOS crossing in Lyerly. Six of the crossings along the line are still gateless as well, with the remaining eleven all being gated. Only one crossing on the line is in Chattanooga as well, the rest are in Georgia.
The lights along this line are almost entirely 12 inch and LED, though a crossing in LaFayette still retains a full set of Safetran 8 inch lights, which are fully incandescent and the only 8 inch lights left along the line, as all of the others were replaced in the latter-half of the 2010s. No idea how the one has managed to survive, TBH. One crossing in Summerville features 12 inch lights with a mix of incandescent and LED bulbs, while another in Trion, GA, features all LED bulbs in its lights. The rest use LED modules though, with the LEDs mostly consisting of GE Dotted LEDs, though a mix of Electro-tech, GE Uniform Look, WCH 2nd Gen, Harmon Dotted, and General Signals LEDs can be found along the line as well. As far as the 12 inch light-heads go, they are a mix of 12x20s and 12x24s, with most of them being newer WCH heads, though you can also find older and newer Safetran heads, older and newer Harmon heads, and even some Modern Industries heads along the line.
There is also a small mix of bells along the line, with 7 of the crossings featuring mechanical bells and 11 of them featuring electronic bells. Of the mechanical bells, they are almost entirely a mix of 2nd Gen Safetran mechanical bells and 2nd Gen WCH mechanical bells, though a Modern Industries mechanical bell can be found along the line in Trion. The electronic bells are primarily WCH e-bells, though a few General Signals Type 2 and Type 3 e-bells can also be found along the line.
As far as gate mechanisms go, it's a similar story. Most are WCH 3597 gate mechanisms, which the CCKY has primarily used since the late-90s. However, a few older Safetran gate mechanisms from the Southern Railway can also be found mixed-in along the line, along with a pair of newer Safetran gate mechanisms that @owensri2 installed in 2010 on a pair of old SOU signals in LaFayette. The gate lights are also largely LED, with a good few older incandescent ones mixed in.
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The first crossing looked weird because of the signal, but I love it. ❤
Thanks!
I love the crossing too. It looked like it came from a bar, all drunk. And that crossbuck man. Lol 😂 It makes it more hilarious
That first crossing is especially my favorite
@@freebrickproductionsI know of another railroad crossing that has a crossbuck like that first one. It's in Vance county, NC on Tucker Lumber Rd near the exit 220. You can check it out if you want
Nice Catch On The Passenger Excursion
Jefferson street in cortland, Alabama no longer has its 8inch lights and are now 12x20 inch
It seems like 630 got upgraded a lot
Good job
Thanks!
@@freebrickproductions your welcome
You have quite the quality of shots and angles, fantastic job! What kind of camera, lenses, and microphone (if you do) do you use?
Thanks! I just use a Sony Handycam CX405.
14:57 This looks but doesn’t sound like a old NS or CSX install
The CCKY installed a WCH e-bell there. The line is ex-SOU/CofG, BTW.
Hey,
This video reminds me of something I've been meaning to talk about. This probably sounds like a stupid question, but what websites etc. do you use for finding trains round the US, and how often do these trains run around the Chattanooga area?
I ask because I've got an uncle and aunt who live in Chattanooga and since travelling around the US is so expensive, I thought that when I want to go filming crossings in the US (maybe in 5-10 years' time when I've done more of Portugal and I've got a higher-earning job than my current one), I could go and visit them and tie in some filming at the same time.
Thanks,
Roath
(I've also spent some time on Maps plotting out where the railroad crossings are around Alabama/Tennessee/Georgia, and - again, this probably sounds stupid - I can't figure out which railroads are used by which company, or where or when trains run - please help!)
If you're looking for something like Realtime Trains, sadly that doesn't exist. There is, or at least was, an app where railfans who were out could report what trains they saw while they were out, but I forget what that's called and if it's even still a thing. Otherwise, your closest would probably be getting access to ACTS, but sadly that is steadily going dark as railroads move to a different, untrackable* system. There is also HeritageUnits, but that's for railfans to report the various heritage units and other locomotives of note to track them across the US and Canada.
Amtrak also has their own train tracker map, though asm.transitdocs.com/ works a bit better in my experience, especially on mobile devices, but that's only for intercity passenger trains and the closest Amtrak gets to Chattanooga would be the Crescent through Atlanta and Birmingham (trains 19 and 20). Any actively-used passenger station does generally have a passenger train timetable available for it via Google Maps, however, and it seems they're at least getting better about keeping the times on that accurate to when the train is predicted to come as to whether it's running late or early. Railroad museums that run excursions like the TVRM also keep their excursion schedules publicly available online, including the departure times.
Some railfans have also occasionally managed to set-up accounts with the railroad's customer shipping portals, such as ShipCSX, to track trains with that, but the railroads do sometimes find those out and shut them down.
(*in theory, one could gain access to it, but it's unknown if that'd be possible with the same way ACTS is, and/or if it'd be legal to do so)
What most railfans use for tracking train movements are things like scanner radios, which listen-in to the various two-way radio bands that you program and don't require a license of any kind to use as they cannot transmit. If you don't want to buy a scanner, various railfan hotspots have had online scanner feeds set-up for them. For example, my local area has one in Decatur, AL, for the NS Memphis District East End and the CSX S&NA North Subdivision:
www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/6752
Can't really find one for the Chattanooga, TN, area surprisingly, though there is this one for the Cowan Pusher District on the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision:
www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/14179
Scanners are useful as you can basically listen into the two-way radio channels the railroads use, a list of which can be found on RadioReference's online database, which is divided into states which will make it easier to find-out the frequencies needed for an area (www.radioreference.com/db/browse/). By listening in on the railroads, you can hear things like the train crews calling nearby signals that they're approaching, dispatchers giving out track-warrants and EC-1 forms*, and nearby defect detectors (CSX has theirs give a message when a train reaches it and then reads-out after the train has passed, while NS only has theirs read-out after the train has passed). The various mileposts are marked along the line (railroads have these marked via mileposts sticking out of the ground every mile and also on intermediate signals, while CSX also posts the milepost of every railroad crossing on their blue ENS signs), along with the various control-points and sidings along each line, which will help with using a scanner while railfanning. If a scanner is programmed to listen for a FRED/EoT, this can also be useful for listening out for nearby trains, especially in more rural areas and/or in dark territory. The data these send over the radio is just raw data that gets decoded by the leading engine, so you can't really hear anything legible from them, but the "chirps" they do can still be received by a scanner.
(*assuming these aren't sent over via PTC, that is)
Another way railfans here keep track of trains is via Facebook groups. Some cover a general area around a city or part of/an entire state/railroad division (like Chattanooga Area Railfans, Birmingham Area Railfans, Alabama Rails, North Georgia Railfan Page, Norfolk Southern North Gulf Division, etc.), while others will be specific to one or two lines (such as the CSX S&NA North Subdivision group, which covers CSX's mainline between Birmingham, AL). There are also groups for the various shortlines and regionals around the US as well (like Huntsville & Madison County Railroad Railfans and Friends of the Nashville & Eastern), though as a lot of shortlines are owned by conglomerates these days, you also have groups that cover all of the operations of that conglomerate (such as Genesee & Wyoming RR Fan Page; as the Chattanooga & Chickamauga Railway is owned by the G&W and someone there may know what their operation schedule is like). These can also be used to figure-out where the various rail lines run, but I can try my best to explain what the lines around Chattanooga and where they run, along with about how busy they are in another comment, as this one is already getting quite long. Shortlines, or at least the ones that don't run as-needed, and the Class I mains that only have two trains a day tend to have their crew call times/schedules a bit more closely-tracked that busier Class I mains, but railfans familiar with a line will also sometimes know about when certain trains typically come through an area on a line. The various Facebook groups will also at least sometimes keep track of what symbols/train IDs are routed on the various lines, which can help in figuring out if something is heading your way or not.
Of course, there's also plenty of ways to be alerted to an approaching train as well while trackside, even without any of the above. Wayside signals, if you're in a spot where you can see any, are quite useful, though you'll need to be able to tell if they're CTC (dispatcher) controlled, or automatic. CTC signals will remain in red in all directions unless a train is lined through them, at which point they are "upgraded" to the appropriate indication. Automatic signals will typically remain in green (clear) in all directions, unless a train is either close to the signal and/or lined through a nearby CTC signal, at which point the automatic will drop to red on one side. Automatic signals that are one block from a CTC-controlled signal can also be quite useful, as they normally rest in yellow on one side, and will upgrade or downgrade depending on which way a train is lined through the nearby CTC signal.
You also have absolute and intermediate signals, which can be told apart by the presence, or lack thereof, of the signal's milepost posted underneath the signal head(s).
Absolute signals are often CTC-controlled, though not always (a few sidings and other absolute signals on the NS Memphis District East End are automatics, for example), and are typically found at various interlockings/control points, like the ends of sidings or at junctions. You can also find absolute signals at a point where there isn't an interlocking of any type, these are known as "hold-out signals".
Intermediate signals are almost always automatic signals. On most railroads, like CSX, these are typically also approach-lit, meaning that the signal is dark both sides until a train enters the track circuit on either side of the signal. When one does, the signal on that side will light-up. NS around here in the former Southern territory typically keeps all of their signals lit 24/7, but the NS AGS North District (Chattanooga, TN - Birmingham, AL) and the NS East End District (Birmingham, AL - Atlanta, GA) do use approach-lit signals. Intermediate signals will also typically remain in red after a train has passed until it leaves the track circuit, regardless of direction.
Of course, not every line will have wayside signals, especially most shortlines and branch lines and a good few Class I mainlines. These lines are what's known as "dark territory", as they lack any signals. They may have some signals along their lines, such as at interlockings and/or sidings, but not always. As such, you can't really rely on wayside signal indications and/or crews calling signals they're approaching, but other methods (including listening for defect detectors and EoTs over a scanner along a Class I main that's dark territory) will still work fine.
Of course, those aren't the only ways to be aware of approaching trains. If you're in an area with nearby railroad crossings, you can also listen-out for the horns of approaching trains, as they're required to blow a standard sequence (long-long-short-long, last note held over the crossing) for every crossing they're going across. However, this method isn't super reliable as not every horn is the same volume (although they are required to be between a minimum and maximum decibel rating, IIRC), or will always carry longer distances well, due to various factors like the horns being fouled or having dead bells and/or the weather on that day. They are all typically 3 or 5-note designs, which usually gives them a good distinct sound, though some old preserved diesels may use single-note horns. In my experience, K5HLs (especially the ones used on GEVOs) and K5LLAs (especially the ones used on SD70M-2s/SD70ACes) are often nice and loud and can be heard from a good distance off.
Of course, you also do have quiet-zone crossings, where the requirement to blow the horn for such crossing is removed, in order to reduce noise pollution and avoiding disturbing the people around them. Quiet zones are typically 24-hours, though some places do have partial quiet zones where the requirement is only removed during certain hours, typically overnight. Of course, if you're in or near a quiet zone, then you can't always rely on the train horns for an approaching train.
The final way of watching for an approaching train is just simply (and quite literally) walking up to the tracks and looking. Trains are required to have very bright lights on them, especially when leading. They are also required to be positioned in a triangular formation, with the headlights being above the ditch lights. Depending on the railroad specs, the headlights may be placed on the nose or above the cab and the ditch lights may be placed above or below the running board/around the plow, but they will always be in a triangular formation. CSX and NS still typically have their ditch lights flash when the horn is blown, but most Class Is and shortlines have long since stopped doing that, it seems. Some older ex-SP units on UP's roster do still have the flashing ditch lights though.
As railroads here are typically not fenced in, walking-up to the line to take a peek is very easy to do, though I wouldn't recommend standing on them for long periods of time (as it's both dangerous and technically trespassing).
Pretty much all railroad crossings here are automatically controlled, though older ones that are, or at least were, near industries, yards, and/or stations typically have/had little boxes on the signals/relay case and/or near the crossing that allowed train crews to manually activated/deactivate a crossing while working the industry/yard or stopped at a station using a key. Railroad crossings typically use detection equipment, usually some form of grade crossing predictor, to predict how far the train is out and will activate about 25-30 seconds ahead of the train (with the federally mandated minimum warning time being 20 seconds), though sometimes these will activate early for a train. If a train stops before reaching the road/island circuit, the crossing will typically time-out, usually within a few minutes. Older installs will also sometimes still use the old "drop in/drop-out" detection circuits, which are often timed to the timetable speed of the fastest train on that part of the line. As such, some older installs with these circuits will activate comparatively early for a train that's going slower.
Admittedly, the tracks around Chattanooga can be a bit of a tangled mess, even discounting the various active and out of service/abandoned industrial branches and spurs that sprawl across the city, as Chatt's traditionally been a major industrial and rail hub in this area. There are two Class Is in Chattanooga, CSX and NS, along with one shortline, the Chattanooga & Chickamauga, as well as the TVRM's line. There's also the out of service/abandoned stub of the old TAG line running south out of Chattanooga to Kensington, GA, but pretty much all that's left of that is the rusting rails and decaying crossing signals, as the rest of the line down to Gadsden was abandoned and ripped-out many years ago.
What I'll do for each main line is describe what terminals they run between, a good city/town relatively close to Chattanooga where you can easily find the line by itself on Google Maps (and thus follow it back towards and/or out away from Chattanooga), and about how busy the line is. The lines I list will also be for the ones radiating out from Chattanooga, if you plan on going to a place that doesn't have one that goes to Chattanooga, let me know which place that is and I'll do my best to describe that line as well. The website I help run, Mike's Railroad Crossing Website, also has nearly every signalized at-grade crossing around Chattanooga, save for a few on branch lines in Chattanooga itself, documented on the site, along with the daily train counts provided by the FRA on the crossing inventory reports. Admittedly, the info on the website isn't the most up to date, and the FRA's train counts ain't always the most accurate, but it can be a helpful resource when scouting-out crossings that may be of interest, and the pages do also usually list the name of the line(s) the crossings are on. Northern Alabama, NW Georgia, and Tennessee are all pretty well covered on that site already.
I'll start-off with CSX, as they only have two main lines that run to Chattanooga. These lines are the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision and the CSX W&A Subdivision, and both terminate at the CSX Wauhatchie Yard on the west side of Chattanooga in Wauhatchie, TN, though they do also have a line that bypasses said yard. Both lines are of NC&StL (later L&N and then SBD) heritage, and largely see a similar number of trains. I want to say both lines usually see a similar number of trains to the NS AGS North District or NS Memphis District East End, so not super dead but also far from the busiest, with the amount of traffic varying depending on how many as-needed unit trains CSX sends via Chattanooga on any particular day. It seems most of the traffic CSX runs between Nashville, TN, and Waycross, GA, is routed via Birmingham, AL, rather than Chattanooga and Atlanta, GA.
The Chattanooga Subdivision runs from Chattanooga to Nashville, TN, and a good place to start tracing the line from would be Whiteside, TN. This line is also much busier between Stevenson, AL (where it curves NW to head to Nashville), and Chattanooga, as all of the traffic from the NS Memphis District East End utilizes some long-standing "temporary" trackage rights as the Memphis & Charleston never completed their mainline east of Stevenson.
The CSX W&A Subdivision runs from Chattanooga to Atlanta, GA, technically ending on the CSX Atlanta Terminal just outside of Atlanta. A good spot to start tracing this line from would be Graysville, GA.
Both of these lines are fully LED, save for Julian Road in Chattanooga on the W&A, and while the Chattanooga Sub crossings between Stevenson and Chattanooga are pretty well modernized, both lines do have a good variety of older signals on them, including mechanical bells and older gate mechs.
Chattanooga has always been a bit of a major regional hub for the Southern Railway, and it still very much is one for NS, as NS has five different mainlines that all terminate on the NS Chattanooga Terminal around Chattanooga, of which the major rail yard in downtown Chatt, the NS Debutts Yard, is the heart of. Some of these mainlines are more major than others, so traffic isn't even across all of them. The vast majority of the crossings on the NS around Chattanooga will be incandescent, though some are LED.
Going clockwise around Chattanooga, the first NS main you have is the NS CNO&TP South District, which runs from Chattanooga to Somerset, KY, and sees about 20-ish trains per day per the FRA. The equipment on this line is fairly well modernized by NS, but, IIRC, there are still a few 8 inch lights and some gateless installs on the line near Chattanooga. A good spot to start tracing the line from would be Soddy-Daisy, TN.
The next line is the NS Knoxville West End District, which runs from Chattanooga to Knoxville, TN. This line ain't nearly as busy, only seeing about 8 trains a day, but seems to have at least somewhat more interesting equipment than the CNO&TP South. A good place to start tracing this line would be McDonald, TN.
The third NS mainline to Chattanooga is the NS Atlanta North District, which runs from Chattanooga, to Atlanta, GA. This line is also quite busy, seeing about 22 trains per day per the FRA, and contains a good mix of modernized SOU installs and NS installs. There are also six working mechanical bells and a few 8 inch lights around Rome along the line. The line also crosses and then runs closely parallel to the CSX W&A Subdivision for a few miles in/south of downtown Dalton, GA. A good spot to start tracing this line would be Varnell, GA.
Also, to note real fast, there is an NS line that connects the Atlanta North to the Knoxville West End. This line is the NS Cohutta District, sometimes called the I Line by railfans, and runs from the Atlanta North at Cohutta, GA, to the Knoxville West End in Cleveland, TN. I ain't too familiar with the crossing equipment on this line, but I do know it sees very little use, about 1-2 trains a day max.
The fourth NS main to Chattanooga is the NS AGS North District, which runs from Chattanooga to Birmingham, AL, roughly parallel to US 11 the whole way. The line isn't super busy, seeing only about 6-8 trains a day, IIRC. The Alabama part of the line is pretty boring as well, being primarily 2000s and newer NS installs, but you can still find the occasional 70s SOU or 90s NS install, along with a couple of mechanical bells. Georgia is more interesting, containing a better mix of later SOU and earlier NS installs (with plenty of newer NS ones mixed in), but lacks any mechanical bells. There are some MI 12x24s on this part of the line still, however. There are only two crossings on the AGS North in Tennessee. One is the last gateless crossing on the AGS North's main, which retains a mechanical bell, while the other is a double crossing with the CSX line that bypasses Wauhatchie Yard, and is LED but features some (rare for NS) WCH lights and a GS Type 1 e-bell, IIRC. A good spot to start tracing this line from would be Trenton, GA.
The fifth and final NS line to Chattanooga is my local NS mainline, the NS Memphis District East End. This line runs from Chattanooga, TN, to Sheffield, AL, but NS's trackage only begins where it splits off the CSX Chattanooga Subdivision in Stevenson, AL. This line sees about 12 or so trains per day, IIRC, but also has a good mix of older and newer equipment along it, along with a good few mechanical bells and two crossings along the main line with 8 inch lights. US 72 east of Huntsville and Alt. US 72 (I-565 and AL 20) west of Huntsville run largely parallel to this line as well, though AL 279 and AL 35 run much closer to it through Woodville and Scottsboro. A good spot to start tracing this line from would be Fackler, AL.
The final two lines to discuss are the Chattanooga & Chickamauga Railway and the TVRM's Chattanooga Division. The relevant info about the CCKY can already be found in the video and the video description above, but I will note that I'm not sure about when the CCKY runs. I seem to recall it might be as-needed? You can probably ask in a Facebook group about it though. US 27 also generally runs parallel to this line.
The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Chattanooga Division runs from their museum at the Grand Junction station in Chattanooga to downtown Chattanooga, though they also do own the trackage in the industrial park to their east. Their "mainline" only has six signalized crossings along it, four of which feature older SOU installs and the other two featuring newer TVRM installs. The signals at the north end of their line at the entrance to their museum grounds are an old pair of GRS signals from the SOU, which feature some very, very rare STOP lights on one of them.
If you have any further questions, do feel free to ask and I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities, lol. I do hope the above info is rather helpful though.
(Also, forgot to mention that you can use the ScannerRadio app to access the online feeds on a phone or other mobile device.)
👍
Thanks!
Did they replace the whistle on 4501?
Think so.
Ok thanks @@freebrickproductions
Hi
Minus air quality lol
So do the also run freight trains or no
Read the description.
@@freebrickproductionsah ok sorry friend I didn't see it at first