Railroad Crossings of the NS NA District

Описание: The NS NA District is the northern part of the NS NA/West End District, and is the former Southern Railway mainline running from Sheffield Yard to Parrish, AL, where it originally ended at the West End District. Although both lines are rolled into one single line now, I still like to count them as two separate lines due to the fact that they're mileposted differently still.
It appears that the NS NA District used to begin up at Sheffield Yard's original location in Sheffield/Tuscumbia, but, when Sheffield Yard was later moved east of Muscle Shoals, the northern terminus of the NA was moved with it. The original northern end in the Shoals is still mileposted as part of the NA though, beginning at MP NA0 in Tuscumbia and increasing as you head towards Sheffield Yard, though it's now part of the NS Memphis District West End. As such, the NS NA District is only about 91 miles long from end to end, running from about MP NA4 to MP NA95, and has 42 signalized at-grade crossings along it.

The NS NA District is a fairly well modernized line, with most of the equipment along it these days having been installed by NS back in the 1990s or later. The only surviving Southern Railway equipment, other than the many SOU-era wayside signals along it, are the old gateless signals along the line, of which six along the line still feature. All of the gated signals are 90s NS installs or newer, as the surviving SOU and NS gated signals from the 80s were all replaced in the 2010s by NS. Interestingly, only two crossings along the line feature a cantilever signal, and both of these were installed by NS back in the 1990s.

Almost all of the crossings along the line feature electronic bells as well, with only three mechanical bells remaining along the line. Two of these are Safetran mechanical bells, one at the south end of the line in Parrish that's dying, and one in Jasper that still sounds reasonably decent. The third mechanical bell along the line, located just south of Nauvoo, is, amazingly, an RRS mechanical bell, the last one left in Alabama and quite possibly the last one left along a Class I mainline in the US.
Of the electronic bells though, there is a small variety. Most of them are GS Type 2 e-bells, but there are a good few Safetran Type 3 and GS Type 3 e-bells mixed in as well. Thankfully, however, there are still 7 different crossings along the line that still feature GS Type 1 e-bells, two of which even still retain both of their original Type 1s! This is probably the most of any NS mainline in North Alabama, so it's neat to see that so many still survive.

Unsurprisingly, given how modernized this line is, all of the lights along this line are Safetran 12 inch lights from the 80s or newer. The vast majority are Safetran 12x20s, but 8 of the crossings along the line have Safetran 12x24s. Most of these are gateless with either a mix of 12x20s and 12x24s or all 12x24s, but a few are gated with some 12x24s mixed in on them.

As all of the gated signals from the 80s and before have long since been replaced, it shouldn't be too surprising that the gate mechs along this line are largely modern as well. Most are Safetran ones from the 90s through the 2000s, though a good few newer Invensys Rail and various styles of Siemens gate mechs can be found in use along this line as well. The gate lights are a mix of older and newer LED and incandescent ones, with them all being a mix of NEG and RECO gate lights of varying ages and designs, as it typical for most NS mainlines these days.

All in all, despite how modernized this line is, it still is a nice line to shoot, especially if you can get a good long chase of NS 320 in going south along the line. The old SOU-era wayside signals, although not featured in this video, are definitely fun to shoot, even if the crossing equipment tends to be fairly boring.

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