Diamond Crossing Protection

RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

DIAMOND CROSSING PROTECTION
DOSWELL JUNCTION
Doswell VA

and ASHLAND VA

Doswell

A rather busy little diamond, located in Doswell VA, north of Richmond VA. Years ago, this served as a "suburban" junction between the RF&P and the C&O, both of whom had yards in Richmond.

Today, the Buckingham Branch RR maintains a few engines here to do local work, and they occupy the former RF&P/C&O station. The folks from the BBR have always been pleasant, and years ago when I stopped at their HQ in Dillwyn VA, I found out that the owners daughter lived on the other side of the Light Rail tracks from where I currently live. It's a small world.

Activity thru here is fair most of the time, although I imagine early in the week you can wait a while, but later in the day, say after 2pm or so, it's pretty active most days. Amtrak has quite a few trains coming thru here, and the southbound Autotrain comes thru around 4pm. I'm not sure of the frequency of trains on the C&O, but almost every time I have stopped here, I have caught a westbound frreight..... Never caught a BBR freight working tho!

In February or March of 2007, CSX replaced a number of signals. High signals at 3, 5, and 7a, along with the dwarf at 4 were replaced, and most of the old signals were laying on the ground when I came thru Easter week. The signals at 7a were most further south to position 7... not convenient for photographing without putting yourself at risk. Michael Watnoski and I stopped here in 2005 with the old signals still in place.

Doswell is located at milepost 111.8 on the C&O. Back in the 1800's, the junction used to be known as Hanover Junction.

All commercial maps and pictures from maps.live.com, now www.bing.com/maps .

A recently came across another page for Doswell, located here: http://www.piedmontsub.com/Doswell.shtml

A Few Train Pictures

Northbound Tropicana Train.

Southbound Amtrak Autotrain.

Southbound Tropicana Train.

1 The Buckingham Branch RR

Monday 20DEC2010

2 The Depot

3 The Tower

Hanover County Fire Dept, Station 4, Doswell

I would like to thank PJ for showing me around!

This fire station is on the left side of US1 as you're headed north, between Kings Dominion Blvd and Doswell Rd. They just got a new ambo, seen in the back of the station on the bottom row, middle picture. The pictured tanker holds 2000 gallons, they also have one that carries 3000. The stations in Hanover County are primarily paid stations, and Station 4 has about 17 volunteers to help out. Station 4 is also on the dividing line between areas served by "city" water and not, hence the tanker trucks.

A Few General Views

Looking east on the C&O, across the diamond and "towards" Richmond.

Looking west on the C&O.

Looking south across the diamond on the RF&P, towards Richmond.

A couple of shots looking north on the RF&P, towards DC.

The antique store.... you gotta check it out, sometimes they have railroadiana.

I'm guessing this stuff was recently removed, as one of the signal heads was missing lenses. 20DEC2010

Between Kings Dominion Blvd and Doswell Rd, by the firehouse, is this sign, anyone remember the NKP 759 trips around Baltimore back in the 70's?

2 aspect color light dwarf across from the 4 aspect signal.

Cast concrete milepost 22 with impressed numbers, adjacent to the 4 aspect signal.

The old RF&P signals and mast were still in place on my last visit.

Odd placement for a dwarf on a siding, one would think it would be placed to control the siding going back out onto the main, instead of for trains coming off the main going onto the siding!

The new signal.

A westbound freight on the C&O, it left Richmond maybe 20 minutes earlier.

The old signal.

The new signal.

The old signal at this location.

The new signal.

The old signal.

The dwarf signal is about 50 feet south of a small private crossing, several hundred feet south of the diamond, and is a public road.

At the private crossing: an old crossing gate foundation, whistle sign just north of the crossing, looking north towards the diamond, and a freight on the C&O heading out of Richmond. All six pix 20DEC2010

The left two shots are from the Kings Dominion Blvd overpass looking north,
The right picture is looking south from the diamond.
These pictures were taken on 20DEC2010.