A westbound CSX coal train approaches the home signal for the crossing with the Indianapolis Line in Marion on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. This former C&O signal is the last one still standing in Marion on the Columbus Subdivision.
The railfan magazines in the past year have published articles on the demise of Chesapeake & Ohio style block signals along CSX lines in West Virginia and Ohio. Some photographers have made it a quest to photograph as many of these signals as they can while they are still standing.
CSX is removing the signals and replacing them with modern, although similiar, signals. The newer signals may be more reliable, but they just don’t have quite the same character as the signals put by the C&O many years ago. Of course, the C&O signals were not unique, either. Similiar signals could be found throughout the United States.
Still, there was something about these signals that said “C&O” that seemed to distinguish them from others.
On a recent trip to Marion, I noticed that just one C&O signal is left and I was surprised to see it. The signals north of the diamond with the CSX Indianapolis Line vanished a few years ago. I had heard that the remaining C&O signals in Marion had been removed. That reported turned out to be only partly true.
I don’t know how much longer this signal will remain standing. Surely, it is not in much better condition than its mate that stood beside it for decades. But maybe it is in better shape than it might seem. Or perhaps the other signal was removed because it was on a cantilever that was in an advanced state of decay. Then again maybe it will come down soon.
Whatever the case, this signal remains. I snapped a photo of it because it may not be here next time I go to Marion.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
Tags: C&O style signals, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, CSX Columbus Subdivision, Marion Ohio, Marion Union Station
October 21, 2011 at 11:41 am |
C&O color light signals differ slightly from the other color light signals on CSX. If you pay attention to such things, you might notice that the red light on an array is usually on the bottom of the signal (hence a crew may say that a signal “dropped” on them). On the high absolute C&O signal arrays, if there are two or more heads stacked vertically, the red light on the top array is at the top of the array, and the red signal on the lower array is on the bottom. This is done so that from a distance there is enough separation in the lights that an on-coming crew can tell that both lights are red. I’m not sure if the replacement signals will be set up the same way.