Laurel Street, Prescott, AR

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-5-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH Type 2 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a sick WCH Type 1.5 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.

After catching the northbound autorack train, we continued on up to this crossing in Prescott, where we heard UP had a southbound that would meet the northbound autorack around Arkadelphia. After over an hour of waiting, we were able to get our second train of the day: a southbound mixed freight with an SD70ACe leading an AC44CW for power.

This crossing is another nice one, featuring a rather modernized MoPac install at it. It appears the signal on the other side is older, I'm guessing from the 70s though more likely earlier, and used to have a WCH mechanical bell on it, I'm guessing replacing the original one at some point based on the design of 5 inch adapter under it. In the 1980s, however, the closer signal was replaced with the current one, and the far signal had its light heads upgraded to the current US&S 12x20s. Then, in the 2000s, UP replaced the gate mech on the far signal with the current one, and upgraded the lights here to LED. After that, sometime between 2009 and 2013, the closer signal had its original US&S Model 75 gate mech replaced with the current WCH one. Then, sometime between 2013 and 2015, the far signal had its WCH mechanical bell replaced with the current WCH e-bell. Finally, sometime between 2015 and 2022, the US&S mechanical bell here was also sadly replaced with the current WCH e-bell. I suspect this happened closer to 2015 given how tinny the bell sounds. Either way, the crossing has thankfully remained unchanged since, and still retains its nice older US&S 12x20s and diagonally-striped gate arms.
You can also find an old video of this crossing, recorded back in 2009, here on YouTube, back when it still had both mechanical bells. It appears that, at the time, it also still retained its old MoPac-era bell sequence: