Jordan Road, Ryland, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 3-27-24*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 6 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

Earlier in the week this had been filmed, I swung by this crossing one afternoon after getting some car repairs and found out that this crossing had been upgraded, and decided I'd return later to get it documented, as I didn't have my cameras on me. On the morning of March 27th, I went out to see about catching the HMCR before getting some tires on my car replaced. While waiting by their office, this 732 came east through Huntsville, so I decided to chase it out over to this crossing. Here we see NS 732 flying through Ryland, with a BNSF SD70ACe leading a BNSF ES44AC on the head-end with another BNSF ES44ACH and another BNSF SD70ACe working as the train's DPUs.

It appears that, once Pratt Avenue's upgrade was finished, this crossing got upgraded next, which I had suspected was going to happen. With this upgrade, the crossing got all GE Uniform Look LEDs in the light heads, making this the 20th LED crossing on the NS Memphis District East End. Sadly, at the same time, the original Safetran mechanical bell here was replaced with a pair of GS Type 3 e-bells, meaning that there are now only 10 crossings left on the Memphis East with at least one mechanical bell. With the bell upgrade, the bells now ring until the gates are lowered (like most NS crossings), though I'm not sure if this was a change they intentionally made or if whatever issue was causing the bell to ring while the gates were down was fixed. The extra pair of front mast lights on the far signal's gate mast were also removed with this upgrade, which, admittedly, ain't too surprising for me. I'm glad the cantilevers here were otherwise left alone though, especially since this is one of the few crossings in my area with overhead side lights.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/R-Z/Ryland/Jordan/