Railroad Crossings of the TVRM Chattanooga Division

freebrickproductions
freebrickproductions
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Published 2024-08-03
The TVRM Chattanooga Division consists of the trackage the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum operates within Chattanooga, TN. All, or at least almost all, of this trackage is former SOU trackage, though the TVRM does also do some freight service in an industrial park near their museum that may use ex-L&N trackage. Either way, all of the trackage in this video is ex-SOU. The TVRM's initial line was a 1.5 mile stretch of abandoned Southern Railway trackage up on the Missionary Ridge. At some point, the City of Chattanooga took over the rest of the former SOU belt line, with the TVRM operating over it, though I'm not entirely sure when this would've happened. Almost certainly sometime after 1980, however, based on the crossing equipment.

The TCRM's Chattanooga Division has seven signalized crossings on it, six of which are shown in this video. The seventh is a gated crossing in that aforementioned industrial park that features a pair of newer gated signals with WCH 12x20 inch lights (incandescent), a GS e-bell, and Safetran gate mechanisms. Sadly, I have not been able to film that crossing yet, which is why I'm mentioning what it as here rather than later on in this description.

Of the six I have filmed, however, there is a bit of a neat mix of equipment in use here, and all of them are along one line (more or less). Of these six, five of them are gateless with only one featuring a pair of gated signals. Most of these gateless signals are old SOU ones, though one crossing does feature a pair of newer gateless signals from the TVRM. The crossing with the gated signals at it is the newest install along the line, replacing a previously unprotected private crossing when the area was recently redeveloped.

On this line, the vast majority of the lights are incandescent, with only the gated crossing having the lone LEDs on the Chattanooga Division, all of which are WCH 2nd Gens. Most of the crossings have 8 inch lights, with most of them being from Safetran, though some Harmon 8 inch lights, GRS 8 inch lights, and a pair of GRS Lex-C 8 inch lights can also still be found in use. As far as 12 inch lights go, a mix of 12x20s and 12x24s can be found in use on this line as well. Most of these 12 inch lights are also a mix of 70s Safetran heads and newer Safetran heads, though you can also find some newer WCH heads (all 12x20s) along the line, and one crossing even has a 3rd Gen Harmon 12x20 inch light mixed in at it. The crossing at the entrance to the TVRM's museum also features a very rare set of GRS "STOP" lights at it, I believe the last ones in use at a crossing anywhere in the US. Sadly, when I was there, only two of the bulbs in that classic light were working.

For the bells, the majority of them (four out of the six) use Safetran mechanical bells. Sadly, one of these has a dead bell, though another does feature a pair of very nice-sounding Safetrans at it. The two crossings with electronic bells on this line both feature WCH e-bells. Once upon a time, there was a third WCH e-bell at the crossing at the entrance to the TVRM's museum, but that was replaced with a restored Safetran mechanical bell.

For the one gated crossing on this line, the signals there feature a pair of WCH gate mechs, which are a bit neat to see. The gate lights there are also WCH LED gate lights, which are pretty rare to find here in the southeast, in my experience. Like I said, however, all of the other crossings on this line are gateless, so these are the only gate mechs on this line.

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