Tannehill Parkway, McCalla, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-27-19*

Southern signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of GRS Lex-C lights, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Northern signal: 2.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of GRS Lex-C lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

This crossing is a rather nice one and easily one of my favorites here in Alabama, being the only crossing left on a busy Class I mainline to have GRS Lex-C lights! Both cantilevers here were installed in the 1970s by the Southern Railway, and would've used all 12x20 inch GRS Lex-Cs on the overheads with 8 inch Lex-C lights on the masts, two Safetran mechanical bell, and a pair of GRS gate mechs. However, in the early 2000s, NS replaced the GRS gate mechs with the current Safetran gate mechs, and upgraded the mast lights at around the same time. It also appears the the southern signal had its original bell and one of the overhead lights replaced around then in addition to the aforementioned changes. The crossing then remained relatively unchanged until between 2013 and 2016, according to Google Street View, when the original bell on the northern signal and one of the overhead lights were replaced (though at least the bell was most likely replaced by 2015, given the fact that it's a GS Type 2). Other than the northern signal's gate arm being restriped, no changes appear to have occured since street view went by in 2016, which is rather nice to see, especially since it means that these GRS Lex-Cs get to live on for a while longer. Also, if you look closely, you can see that the gate lights on the southern signal's gate arm are wired-up wrong.

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 4-27-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of GRS Lex-C lights, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of GRS Lex-C lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.

On April 27th, I went on down to the NS AGS South District to see about recording (and rerecording) some of the crossings along it, along with getting a signalized crossing on the CSX Mineral Sub that I missed documented for the site. I got to this crossing just after sunrise, and, after about an hour of waiting, I was able to get my first train of the day: NS 131 with an SD70ACe leading an AC44C6M, a Dash-9, and another AC44C6M for power.

Thankfully, nothing too major has changed to this crossing since I last recorded it back in 2019 with TheCentralTexasRailfan. It appears that within the past several years, NS has replaced all of the gate lights here with new LED ones, but I suppose in some ways that's to be expected. Thankfully, the three pairs of GRS Lex-C 12x20s that remain on the overheads here still exist and are in decent shape still. I believe this is the last crossing in Alabama NS has with Lex-C lights on it, so I'm glad to see they're very much still around.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/M ... Tannehill/