Railroad Crossings of the CSX Lineville Subdivision

The CSX Lineville Subdivision is a former ACL main line that runs from Manchester, GA, to Parkwood Junction in Hoover, AL. This was part of the ACL's main into Birmingham, with the now (mostly) abandoned Elyton Subdivision being the rest of the ACL's route into Birmingham, though it did loop through Bessemer before entering Birmingham. The Lineville Sub has remained largely intact, however, except for a short stretch through downtown LaGrange that was abandoned and torn-out mostly in the 80s, I believe when either the SBD or early CSX consolidated the trackage through there (and now has the Lineville Sub traffic take the AWP Sub for a few miles). The Lineville Sub has remained fairly busy over the years, being part of CSX's intermodal corridor between Jacksonville, FL, and Chicago, IL. A lot of intermodal trains, autoracks, and mixed freights, along with a good number of various unit trains, run on the Lineville Sub, so it's generally easy to catch stuff on.
The Lineville Sub itself has some pretty good equipment as well these days, despite how relatively busy it is. Most of the crossings along the line are in Alabama, and the ones in Alabama have been largely modernized over the years, unfortunately. Thankfully, a good number of them still remain incandescent, and there are also a good number of mechanical bells that can still be found along this part of the line as well, all of which have been filmed. Most of the mechanical bells left along the Alabama part of the line are WCH mechanicals, but there is still a Safetran mechanical bell and a WRRS mechanical bell mixed in. Even though most of the equipment on Alabama's side of the state line is CSX stuff from the 90s or newer these days, you can still find a good amount of old SCL and SBD equipment from the 70s and 80s (though the vast majority of it seems to have been at least partially upgraded to LED), along with even some ACL-era equipment, including no less than three bell-less, gateless crossings.
One the Georgia side of the line, the crossing equipment gets much more interesting, IMHO, even though it's much shorter and has noticeably fewer crossings compared to the Alabama part of the line. This part of the line still features mostly old 70s & 80s SCL & SBD-era equipment, and all of the remaining 8 inch lights along the line (all but one of which I filmed). In fact, I believe there are only four crossings along the entire line in Georgia that feature crossing signals installed by the CSX in the 90s or later. The mechanical bells along this part of the line are also a mix of various WCH and Safetran ones, though there is also a dying WABCO mechanical bell over here as well. All but one of the crossings in Georgia along this line are gated, but the remaining gateless one dates back to the ACL and lacks bells as a result. It is also the only gateless crossing along the Lineville Sub with 8 inch lights, which is pretty nice to see. This part of the line also still features the only surviving WCH and WABCO gate mechanisms along the Lineville Sub, all of which were replaced years ago on the Alabama side. Surprisingly, this part of the line also still features three crossings that have very early WCH gate mechanisms, with the cover design that predates the worded ones!
Given how busy this line is, I'm kinda surprised that it's still got lots of older equipment, especially in the way of 8 inch and incandescent lights. CSX has long since fully upgraded other similarly busy (and less busy) lines elsewhere in Alabama and Georgia to LED, a few of which carry the traffic from this line as well, so I'm kinda surprised they've skipped fully upgrading it to LED like those. While they've also definitely been a bit more aggressive about LED upgrades on the Alabama side, there's also still a very healthy number of incandescent crossings.
The Lineville Sub as a whole also still features a large number of GS Type 1s in service, which is rather nice to see as well.
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[@piercebobo5754]

Also its neat seeing these since thats my home area! I see these crossings all the time and its really interesting seeing them on youtube 😂

[@piercebobo5754]

The first video, if you go to the S&NA South sub crossing (double tracks) just down the road and hike towards the bridge, theres a neat trail that takes you to an overlook of the bridge over buck creek and its a very neat place to sit and watch.

[@mikechupp3496]

I'm a Railfan from Western New York I've been watching your railroad crossing and train videos for a very long time I'm a big fan of your channel have been for a long time soo glad I subscribed to your channel this video is awesome too

[@freebrickproductions]

Thank you!

[@mikechupp3496]

@@freebrickproductions you are welcome keep these amazing videos coming

[@chrislangdon8182]

Great video, it must take a lot of gas money and time for you to record all these. Good thing you have us! Anyways why did you call your channel freebrick productions?

[@freebrickproductions]

Thanks! Originally, I was going to do Lego videos with my sister, but that clearly didn't happen, lmao.

[@LandonDoesRailfanningTrains10]

Cool video buddy

[@freebrickproductions]

Thanks!

[@TrentEngineFan]

That first crossing needs gates badly. That is a VERY busy road.

[@freebrickproductions]

Not sure what the AADT of the road is, but I do know there was an event going on at a park nearby at the time, which seems to have contributed at least some to the high amount of traffic along it. People were regularly waiting on the tracks for traffic to move while I was waiting for the train.

[@TheMetGuy]

Nice crossings and most of them had no bells on them

[@freebrickproductions]

Thanks! Only four lack any bells, lol.

[@ncmariofan3605]

The 1st crossing in the video is dangerous! No bells or gates!

[@carstrainsandcrossings8639]

One of the E-bells at CR 83 sounds a bit scratchy

[@tylerdonitzen]

The crossing at Weatherly Way in Pelham why do the lights stop blinking they blink back forth then stop then it continues.

[@freebrickproductions]

They weren't doing anything like that.

[@thegwobblegwobble1631]

The signal lights for that crossing used LED lights, which cameras don’t pick up all too well. The lights are continuously blinking, but the camera just picked up the light strangely. It’s not happening to the other signal due to it having a normal filament bulb

[@freebrickproductions]

@@thegwobblegwobble1631 Both signals actually have LED front lights and incandescent rear lights for some reason, lol.

[@therailfanningskeleton359]

@@freebrickproductions I believe it's just a way of cutting budget instead of replacing all the lights. It happens a lot in my area. I will admit it is a litte odd though.

[@jbush9502]

Very nice video , any idea what the average train count is a day on this line ?

[@freebrickproductions]

Thanks! I think around 2 dozen trains a day or so?

[@jbush9502]

@@freebrickproductionsthanks I’ll be in Lagrange next month hopefully I’ll catch a train or 2

[@piercebobo5754]

In the Helena/Pelham area, you get a train at least every 30-45 mins on the Lineville sub

[@derricktherailfan]

Does BNSF have trackage right on the CSX Lineville sub?

[@freebrickproductions]

No. The BNSF intermodals that use it are run-throughs off of the BNSF Birmingham Sub in Birmingham and have CSX crews.

[@RailfanRXR]

Oh my god, the guy at 1:14:39 made me pissed. He honked at you for you to get out of the road so he could go around the gates?!?!? Ugh. Sometimes I can't stand people.

[@freebrickproductions]

The impatience of some people is amazing, NGL.

[@csxwrldgalvin8883]

CSX,BNSF & UP

[@PhillipHill-pe1vw]

You missed weather's and lineville and cragford

[@freebrickproductions]

Weather's? And that's likely because I didn't get a chance to record them.