Hello everyone, glad to join! I have recently gotten much more into railfanning and have no plans to stop. It's fun and a great way for me to kill time, because I get a lot of it being a longhaul trucker. I would like to start out with a question for whoever may know. I had some time to watch the action on the CSX A&WP Sub in Newnan Georgia today, and caught about six trains, not too bad. But after a few passed, I noticed something that seemed odd to me. A quarter mile south of me is a diamond where NS crosses the single CSX track, and two double head interlock signals on the CSX line that face outward from the diamond. I noticed both signals were displaying an approach signal, yellow over red. Until now I had believed that if one signal displayed approach, then the opposing signal should display stop. Why would these signals display approach in both directions? The signals have been like this for several hours. Any help or info is greatly appreciated!!!
The CTC signals of a particular railroad won't be the same in both directions, because they are directing traffic on a single track. But a signal guarding a crossing may not be connected to that system at all. They're certainly connected to the railroad being crossed, however. If they have no function on that road's traffic control system, and only guard the crossing, then direction won't enter into it. Think of the flashers at a road crossing. They never flash for automobiles going east, but not west. If the gates go down on one side of the tracks, they go down on the other side too. They don't know if automobiles are only coming from the north, or only from the south. They only know automobiles are about to get crushed if they don't stop. Just as railroads always have right of way over streets, the railroad which was built first always has right of way over the railroad that crossed it at grade later. Or, at least, it's their option whether to yield or not. So, the road grade crossing analogy holds true.
Welcome aboard! Hope the answer you received cleared things up a bit for you. There are many very knowledgeable folks here who will be quite happy to assist with any further you may have, so don't hesitate.
Welcome to TrainBoard! Likely those signals will display as the same, until there is block occupancy from one direction.
