Railroad Crossings of the NS East End District

The NS East End District is a Norfolk Southern mainline that runs from Birmingham, AL, to Atlanta, GA. This line is decently busy, though most of the freight sadly runs at night. It also carries the daily Amtrak Crescent service over it, which runs from New York City, NY, to New Orleans, LA. All of the signalized crossings along the line are gated, unsurprisingly, likely owing to the line carrying Amtrak trains along it. That being said, there is at least one gateless crossing in Leeds on a spur track off of the East End District. Most of the signals are also NS installs from the 80s and newer, though a few modernized 70s and early-80s SOU installs can be found still too, especially over in Georgia, though a few do still exist on the Alabama part of the state line as well. Interestingly, most of the cantilevers I've filmed along the line are older ones, with the newest ones I've filmed being some mid-90s NS installs. In fact, I think a good few of the cantilevers left along the line are modernized SOU ones, including the pair I've filmed in Leeds. There's a particularly ancient GRS cantilever from the SOU in use in Bremen, GA, along with a large RACO cantilever in Villa Rica, GA. The rest of the cantilevers along the line are Safetran and Siemens cantilevers of varying ages, however, though most of those appear to be Safetran cantilevers from the 70s to 90s.

All of the lights along the line are 12x20s and 12x24s, with all of the heads being Safetran ones from the 80s and newer. The Alabama portion of the East End is almost entirely incandescent, save for a single LED signal relatively recently installed in Leeds. On the other hand, the Georgia portion of the NS East End District is fully LED. The LEDs along the line are, unsurprisingly, mostly GE Uniform Look LEDs, though a few GE Dotted LEDs can be found in use.

The vast majority of the bells in use on the NS East End District these days are electronic, unsurprisingly. The e-bells on this line are a mix of General Signals Type 1s, GS Type 2s, GS Type 3s, and Safetran Type 3s, as expected for NS. A couple of the GS Type 2s along the line are noticably sick, however, as one in Oxford, AL, has a rather scratchy ring while one of the ones in Leeds is completely fried. The East End does still retain six crossings with mechanical bells though. Five of these are along the main, all of which I've filmed, and all feature 2nd Gen Safetran mechanical bells at them. The gateless spur crossing in Leeds features the line's only 1st Gen Safetran mechanical bell, though I haven't entirely been lucky enough to film it yet. There used to be a good few more mechanical bells up through at least 2020, but sadly NS yeeted a lot of them within the past few years, likely due to them dying. Thankfully, Anderson Street in Leeds still retains a working pair of Safetran mechanical bells still, which is nice to see.

As expected for an ex-SOU NS line, the gate mechs on this line all come from the Safetran family. You'll find every variety of Safetran gate mech represented along this line, from the mid-70s to the 2000s, along with a few Invensys Rail and a good few Siemens gate mechs of various flavors in use as well. Probably not the most interesting variety out there, but it's definitely better than some other lines I've shot (such as the NS NA District or the CSX S&NA North Subdivision). I believe all of the mid-70s Safetran gate mechs along this line exist only on the Georgia side of the line, however, so the oldest Safetran get mechs you'll be able to find on the Alabama side are going to be the late-70s ones.

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