Pontiac’s Wessen street crossing

[David Collins]

I’ve noticed the crossing at Wesson Street (right next to the Amtrak station) has a white light with a sign below it that says “on circuit”, I’ve only seen it light up for trains pulling into or out of the station, is the crossing activated any different from the separate double track on the Holly subdivision and why is the white light needed?

[Buster Manning]

This light was put in place by the CN Signal Dept. to alert Amtrak crews that when spotting the train north of Wesson St., it was still on the circuit .....which when the idea of said light was proposed 10+ years ago, back then 350 would spot the train north of the crossing to then turn as 355 ( it was a good idea, back when 350 would run with an engine, 3 cars and a cabbage...space was tight between the derail on the north end and the island circuits) However, by the time it was installed, Amtrak had stopped spotting 350 north of Wesson St. to turn as 355, instead spotting the train south of the crossing so as to be able to get water for the cars and be able to plug into the ground power so as to be able to shut off the engine and save some fuel

Kudos to CN for thinking of this....they get razzies for taking too long to install it so as to be useful

[railrod1949]

This light was put in place by the CN Signal Dept. to alert Amtrak crews that when spotting the train north of Wesson St., it was still on the circuit .....which when the idea of said light was proposed 10+ years ago, back then 350 would spot the train north of the crossing to then turn as 355 ( it was a good idea, back when 350 would run with an engine, 3 cars and a cabbage...space was tight between the derail on the north end and the island circuits) However, by the time it was installed, Amtrak had stopped spotting 350 north of Wesson St. to turn as 355, instead spotting the train south of the crossing so as to be able to get water for the cars and be able to plug into the ground power so as to be able to shut off the engine and save some fuel

Kudos to CN for thinking of this....they get razzies for taking too long to install it so as to be useful

Spelling correction! Wessen Street, not Wesson Street!!

[Buster Manning]

[David Collins]

This light was put in place by the CN Signal Dept. to alert Amtrak crews that when spotting the train north of Wesson St., it was still on the circuit .....which when the idea of said light was proposed 10+ years ago, back then 350 would spot the train north of the crossing to then turn as 355 ( it was a good idea, back when 350 would run with an engine, 3 cars and a cabbage...space was tight between the derail on the north end and the island circuits) However, by the time it was installed, Amtrak had stopped spotting 350 north of Wesson St. to turn as 355, instead spotting the train south of the crossing so as to be able to get water for the cars and be able to plug into the ground power so as to be able to shut off the engine and save some fuel

Kudos to CN for thinking of this....they get razzies for taking too long to install it so as to be useful

Spelling correction! Wessen Street, not Wesson Street!!

It’s Wesson, I looked on google maps

[Standard Railfan]

Spelling correction! Wessen Street, not Wesson Street!!

It’s Wesson, I looked on google maps

According to the street sign at the corner of Woodward Ave. the street name in question is spelled Wessen.

[J T]

Spelling correction! Wessen Street, not Wesson Street!!

It’s Wesson, I looked on google maps

I'm looking at google maps right now and it's Wessen.

[GTWChris]

It really was/is Wesson St. At some point the o was swapped with an e, presumably by accident, and it stuck. Google Maps has it was Wessen. Others have it as Wesson.

[~Z~]

Whatever the case, railrod didn't need to exclaim about a spelling correction and not bother to comment about David's questions.
Replying with just spelling corrections isn't cool. I'll give the rest of you a pass.
Too bad that circuit didn't get installed earlier.. so many projects just take too long to get done.