Kirby Road, Portland, TN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 12-8-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a GRS gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights, a GRS gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO gate light.

As M212 and M574 were meeting an M209 at Mitchellville, I made my way on up to this crossing to see about recording it next. After a few minutes of waiting, CSX M209 departed from the siding in Mitchellville with an ET44AH pulling on the head-end and an ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU.

This crossing is another great one, featuring a 1970s L&N install that's still largely original. Sadly, sometime between 2013 and 2016, the original Modern Industries mechanical bell here was replaced by an NEG e-bell. Since then, thankfully, no noticable changes appear to have occurred to this crossing. However, when EthantheRailfanner recorded this crossing back in 2018, either the bell was so quiet you couldn't hear it in his video, or it was dead. At some point since then, I'm not entirely sure when, either the bell here was fixed or it was replaced with a newer NEG e-bell, but I guess it doesn't affect what equipment this crossing has.
Thankfully, the crossing here still retains all of its original Modern Industries 8 inch lights and both of its original GRS Type D gate mechs. This is one of the last three crossings on the Tennessee part of the Mainline Sub with GRS Type Ds, as well as one of the last two with 8 inch lights still. The lights on both signals are also rather nicely faded, especially the ones on the closer signal. The closer signal even retains an incandescent gate light, which is rather nice to see. It seems this gate light got swapped-around some, as Ethan's video from 2018 seems to show it was previously in the middle, with the base gate light being a RECO LED one.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/G-Q/Portland/Kirby/