CR 11, Pelham, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-28-17*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.

This crossing is a pretty nice one. It features a pair of gateless, bell-less signals at it, making it one of three bell-less crossings in the Birmingham area. It appears that this crossing got an upgrade in the early to mid 2000s (with the right-hand signal reusing the small pinnacle from one of the old signals), but the left hand signal was replaced sometime between 2009 and 2013 with the current one, likely due to a knock down or CSX wanting to shift the lights on it. Both signals used to be like the one on the right, but when the current left-hand signal went in, CSX had the lights mounted rather high up on it. I'm not sure why, but it's likely due the hill just beyond the crossing.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Pelham/CR11/

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-18-22*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs.

After catching the second southbound intermodal train, I came over to this crossing to see about getting a video of it as well. After a little under an hour of waiting here as well, this southbound intermodal train came rolling through with a trio of BNSF ES44C4s for power.

Since I last recorded this crossing, a few changes had occurred here. As you can see, the far signal was replaced entirely, with the replacement signal being an old SCL one that was reused from a crossing over in Chelsea! No idea what happened to the previous one here, but I suspect it'd been struck, as street view showed that one of the lights that had been on the old signal was replaced with a modern WCH one prior to the signal being replaced entirely.
It seems that around the same time as the far signal being replaced, CSX also upgraded the closer signal to LED, using more Dialight Ball LEDs in it interestingly enough. Thankfully this crossing still remains gateless and bell-less, and hopefully will for many more years to come.