shaun_sager4
Simon
NS U86 ducks under the searchlight cantilever at Simon on NS's Guyandotte Branch in the final days of service. The legacy cantilever is of N&W origin but was retrofitted with Virginian SA searchlights when N&W modified the interlocking after the takeover.
When I made the mile + walk back to the signal, I had no call times, no information, and not the faintest idea when the next train would come. I decided I would bring a book and wait at Simon all day if I had to. Incredibly, just 45 minutes after I arrived, the sweet music of a GE 4-stroke 7FDL-16 motor and wheel squeal echoed through the Valley, and a WB coalie soon whipped around the corner. Crazy.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, the searchlights were up for replacement. The vertical section of the modern signal was already in place when I walked in, and the shiny rails on either side of the new rail shunt indicated a very recent construction. I would later find a large amount of staged equipment in nearby Baileysville.
The cut-over would happen just 10 days later, likely making this the among the last photos ever taken of the ancient signal.
Tariffs have reduced traffic on the Guyandotte to a trickle, and managing to get a train at Simon with just days to spare was a rare stroke of luck in a trip plagued with misfortune
Simon
NS U86 ducks under the searchlight cantilever at Simon on NS's Guyandotte Branch in the final days of service. The legacy cantilever is of N&W origin but was retrofitted with Virginian SA searchlights when N&W modified the interlocking after the takeover.
When I made the mile + walk back to the signal, I had no call times, no information, and not the faintest idea when the next train would come. I decided I would bring a book and wait at Simon all day if I had to. Incredibly, just 45 minutes after I arrived, the sweet music of a GE 4-stroke 7FDL-16 motor and wheel squeal echoed through the Valley, and a WB coalie soon whipped around the corner. Crazy.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, the searchlights were up for replacement. The vertical section of the modern signal was already in place when I walked in, and the shiny rails on either side of the new rail shunt indicated a very recent construction. I would later find a large amount of staged equipment in nearby Baileysville.
The cut-over would happen just 10 days later, likely making this the among the last photos ever taken of the ancient signal.
Tariffs have reduced traffic on the Guyandotte to a trickle, and managing to get a train at Simon with just days to spare was a rare stroke of luck in a trip plagued with misfortune