High Greens at Fordyce

The last post I got out and tested the signal for the ripped out crossing between Fordyce and Haskell.  I worked all week getting them prepped for installation and finished them up last night.

As the story goes on my layout, there was a short line that crossed the Rock near Fordyce.  It ran through Haskell and on the west.  The short line shut down and Gavilon Fertilizer swayed the Rock to add a connection at Haskell so they could still rely on rail service.

After making this happen, the Rock tore out the crossing near Fordyce, but left the signals in place for now, leaving them green for their mainline and red for the short line.  As I was told, they would need to request permission to completely remove the signals from the FRA.  The request is pending... 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this section of the layout, I've taken some pics to help you follow along.

Here's the track plan for that area.  There are two green dots where the signals are located on the Rock and a red dot where the one stands on the defunct short line.

The following images show an overview of the locations, followed by shots of the signals.

Looking North from Fordyce.  The building in the upper left hand is Gavilon in Haskell.  The signal is next to the loco.

Looking down the short line, the removed crossing can be seen in the middle near the backdrop.

Looking South from Haskell.  You can see both signals, the green on the left behind Gavilon's building and the red to the right of the unloading shed.

The south signal

The North signal

The Short line signal

Signals at Fordyce

In 2019 I ordered some signals from CSS (Custom Signal Systems) out of Utah.  There is a spot near Fordyce (on my layout) where a fictional short line crossed the Rock Island, just to the north of where the current Whitewater bridge is standing today. 

In my world, the short line is now abandoned, the Rock Island tore out the diamond, but they left the signals intact and lit.  The signals will have a constant GREEN signal displaying for the Rock Island and RED for the short line.  Part of the short line is now operated by the Rock Island with a connection at Haskell, AR.

This is one of the small projects that I want to get done before October.