Finally got this one done! Based on how long this one was, I'll probably split the one for 2016 up into two or more parts.
2015 was easily my best year in railfanning. I caught a lot of great equipment leading, traveled all over Alabama and into Tennessee a bit, and recorded 88 different railroad crossings! At the beginning of 2015, the HMCR still had NS 2402 in use. However, in February, the HMCR got an ex-L&N/CSX MOW U23B, numbered HMCR 9554. This engine went into service on its first run on 2-21-15, with NS 2402 being returned to NS the following Monday. However, the day before HMCR 9554 went into service, an ice storm hit Huntsville and the signal with the bell at Eagletree Lane was knocked down by a guy sliding into it. It would take several months before the new signal would get installed in June of 2015. The HMCR also repainted HMCR 9554 in the first half of 2015, and it was completely repainted by June of 2015, when they received a second engine, an ex-Southern/Norfolk Southern high-hood B23-7. It went into service shortly after, but due to it having more issues, it didn't actually start running until a few months later. During the second half of 2015, the HMCR would also slowly repaint this engine into their paint scheme. SD70MACs and AC44CWs also became much, much rarer on the coal trains in late 2015, as BNSF started storing them with a decline in coal. A few trains were dropped all-together in 2015, such as the last remaining UP coal train on this line. However, 2015 did see the birth of CSX trains N013 and N014, both nick-named "The Monster", as a dispatcher referred to the first N013 to be run as that. These trains are extremely long coal trains that require mid-train DPUs to help move them across hills. They started being run in about August or September of 2015, but I wouldn't see one until December of 2015.
Crossing-wise, there were a few notable changes, aside from Eagletree Lane having a signal get replaced. First off, all of the old white emergency information tags at the crossings on both the CSX S&NA North Sub and most of the ones on the NS Memphis District East End got replaced with the new blue ones. Several more NS crossings with LED lights also started cropping up this year in this area, along with CSX finally upgrading Market Street in Athens, AL to LED over the summer. General Signals Type-3 e-bells made their debut in 2015, with them getting installed at crossings as early as September. Finally, sometime over the summer, Norfolk Southern replaced every 8 inch light on both the NS Memphis District East and West Ends between Sheffield, AL and Decatur, AL with 12 inch ones, with the exception of the 8 inch lights at Jefferson Street in Courtland, AL, which still remain. However, this sadly included the GRS 8 inch lights at Alabama Street in Courtland.
Interestingly enough, the last crossing in this video was the last crossing I recorded in 2015, and the train shown was the last train I recorded in 2015.