Johnson Street, Alton, AL

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Johnson Street, Alton, AL

Post by freebrickproductions » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:37 pm



*originally recorded on 4-3-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a WCH Type 4 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

This crossing is another decent one, having been installed by CSX in the early to mid-2000s, shortly before the ATN took over the line. Of course, the right-hand signal has had a few changes to it, such as the original GS Type 2 e-bell having been replaced with a slow WCH Type 4, and the gate arm having been restriped and given a new set of LED gate lights. The other signal is pretty much unchanged though, which is rather nice to see.
When I first got to this crossing, I briefly debated on which side to set-up on, but decided to go with this side as the lighting would've been better for the train. While it is a bit disappointing not to be on the side with the incandescent gate lights, I did catch a bit of a surprise with this side, as the gate arm didn't lower all the way! It appears that this happened due to the gate mechanism having one too many counterweights on it (both signals appear to have the same length of fiberglass gate arms, though the far one only has three counterweights on it while the closer one has four). Due to this extra counterweight, the gate arm wound-up "hanging" at the point where the motor in the gate mechanism dropped out while lowering. It appears both bells are set to stop when both gate arms have fully lowered as well, causing both bells to ring until the gates started to rise. I called this issue in after looking at the crossing a bit closely after the train had passed, so hopefully this is fixed by now.
Just east of this crossing there used to be an old SAL-era slide-fence signal standing here. Unfortunately, the ATN has long-since removed it and all that's left is just half of the base sitting on the foundation. The signal was originally used to alert train crews to a rock slide along the line, but I'm guessing work was done to stabilize the ground around the line, thus removing the need for the slide fences and related signals at the same time.
With this crossing however, I have successfully recorded every signalized crossing on the ATN from Birmingham to Glenco!
They/Them for me, please.

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Re: Johnson Street, Alton, AL

Post by freebrickproductions » Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:25 pm

Recorded the other side of the crossing on 6-28-19:


The signal with the WCH e-bell has had its gate mech fixed, but it still has four counterweights on it. Not entirely sure what caused the gate mech to act up the way it did the first time around now.
They/Them for me, please.

Click here if you want to submit crossing photos to the site!

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