Troy Street (AL 10), Brundidge, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-1-18*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WABCO 8 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of US&S 8 inch lights and 1 WABCO 8 inch light.

Last week, I went down to Port St. Joe, FL for a week-long vacation. On the way down, I decided to document the signalized crossings along the little-used CSX Dothan Subdivision, as it has a large variety of older equipment, including a lot of older ACL, SCL, and SBD installs along the line and tons of 8 inch lights and mechanical bells! Unfortunately, the Dothan Sub doesn't have any regular trains assigned to it, aside from the locals that work the various shortlines and remaining industries along the line, so catching a train here is very difficult to do. However, by just sheer dumb luck, as I was heading into Ozark, AL to document the crossings there, I happened to see a northbound CSX grain train heading through the first crossing I pulled up to, so I quickly turned around and chased him to this crossing. Sadly, the train had an ES44AH in YN3b leading a YN3b AC44CW and a YN3 SD70MAC, but at the same time, any train you can get along this line is a good train!

This crossing was a very high priority for me to record if I could get a train along the line. The signal on the right still features vandal-guards on all of the US&S lights, and an original cats-eye crossbuck on top of it as well! In fact, other than the CSX ENS sign and the WABCO 8 inch light on it, the signal appears to be entirely original from the ACL! The other signal appears to have been replaced at some point as it's newer and features a newer crossbuck on it as well, so that's why I set-up on this side of the crossing despite it being slightly backlit. Thankfully, there was a fair number of clouds overhead which made the lighting better on this side. There's another cats-eye crossbuck up in Banks, AL, just north of this crossing, but sadly, I wasn't able to record it. I believe these two cats-eye crossbucks are the only two left in service in the entire state of Alabama as well.