Dean Street, Gladewater, TX

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-1-24*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, 1 Harmon 12x20 inch light with an Electro-tech LED, a WCH mechanical bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Harmon 12x20 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a Harmon gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.

On the morning of February 1st, we got on up and got out to see about shooting the normally-busy UP Mineola Subdivision. Unfortunately, due to track work it seems, the line was pretty dead on this day. Thankfully, when we got out here, UP was doing some track work just east of the crossing that caused this crossing to time-out every so often.

While here, we saw that the Amtrak Texas Eagle was due to come through before too long. As such, we waited around here to come, documenting one of the other crossings in Gladewater in the process (though sadly I didn't catch it in action), as I wanted to get a proper video of this crossing activating for a train. After probably about an hour and a half of waiting, our patience would be rewarded, when the westbound Amtrak Texas Eagle came flying through with a lone P42DC for power!

This crossing is a great one, and definitely one I absolutely wanted to get on this trip. The signals here were originally installed by the MoPac back in the 1980s, and remained fairly original into the 2000s. Unfortunately, sometime between 2008 and 2013, the signal on the far side was replaced, likely due to being struck. Thankfully, however, UP chose to reuse an older MoPac signal to replace it, along with a newer WCH mechanical bell (which may have been on the reused signal to begin with) and one of the Harmon lights from the old signal. The signal did get a newer WCH gate mechanism though, along with a newer set of Alstom LED gate lights to replace the older incandescent ones that signal had (including a pair of 7 inch ones). Since then, the only change here was an LED upgrade sometime between 2016 and 2022 done by UP, with no further major changes to the crossing.
Thankfully, aside from the LED lights, the closer signal is still the fully original early-80s MoPac install, complete with its original WCH mechanical bell and Harmon gate mech! The two WCH mechanical bells here still sound fairly healthy and honestly sound great together, which is always nice to see.
Of course, the star of the show here is very much the Harmon gate mechanism. It doesn't seem these were super popular, and most of the ones that were installed have long since been replaced. However, this one thankfully still remains in use here, complete with its original chunky counterweight arms! This is the first one I've ever seen in person, much less operating, so I'm glad I got to shoot it. Hopefully these signals remain unchanged here for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I was able to record them on this trip.