29th Street #2, Birmingham, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 1-21-20*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights and an NEG electronic bell.

After catching CSX M730, I was wandering around a bit when I saw this local freight leaving Boyles Yard on the Mineral Sub. As such, I decided to race on over to this crossing to catch him, where we see him rolling through with a single SD40-3 hauling a cut of gondolas. I tried to chase him farther, but I wasn't able to catch him again (sadly) before he tied down near Fairfield. Not a bad train to end off my day on though.

This crossing is another pretty decent one. The signals here appear to have been installed by the L&N (likely with all MI equipment), but, in the late-1990s/early-2000s, CSX upgraded the lights to the current Safetran 12x24s and replaced the mechanical bell here with what appears to have been a General Signals Type 1. Then, sometime after 2018, it appears that the bell was sadly replaced with the current NEG e-bell.
However, the location of this crossing is also pretty interesting. As you can see, even though this is a public crossing, all that it leads to is just a locked gate with nothing beyond it! That's because this road was once used to access a plant that was on the other side of the crossing, but it appears that sometime between 2008 and 2011 (according to GSV), the plant was closed and torn down. However, despite this, the crossing has remained open, even though the road ends just beyond it. Not entirely sure why this has been such, perhaps Birmingham hopes someone will develop the land in the future?
Either way, this crossing is still a pretty decent one, so I'm glad I recorded it. Also, due to the lack of traffic here thanks to the fact that it's essentially a dead-end crossing, I took the opportunity to set-up in the middle of the road, as you can see in the video.