Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard #4, Birmingham, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-19-21*

Signal on the left: 6 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 6 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and a dead General Signals (Type 1?) electronic bell.

After the UP-powered intermodal train came through, NS had a switch fail over at the 14th Street interlocking in downtown Birmingham, which unfortunately brought all of their traffic to a standstill through Birmingham for a few hours, including trapping Y130 behind a couple of stuck NS local freights. Thankfully, the switch was eventually fixed, and traffic soon started flowing again. CSX Y130 was eventually able to make its way back up the NS Ensley Branch to CSX's Boyles Terminal (and eventually Boyles Yard) at around sunset, and I was able to successfully record this crossing on it. Here we see it on its return back with the same pair of SD40-2s that it had before. The one leading it on this trip was the one seen trailing earlier, and it certainly has an interesting sounding horn on it.

This crossing is a rather nice one, especially since it's the only gateless crossing on this part of the Ensley Branch. The signals here are a 90s NS install which are mostly original. I believe the current GS Type 1s are a replacement for the original Safetran mechanical bells that may have been here, though it's possible that they could be original to these signals. Either way though, at some point in the 2000s or 2010s, one of the rear mast lights on far signal was struck and replaced with a newer one, but no other major changes have occured here since.
The working GS Type 1 here was rather nice to see, though sadly, the bell on the closer signal is dead. I'd thought that it was a GS Type 2, but looking at older videos taken around this crossing shows that it might've been a Type 1 (assuming that the bell was even working back then as well). On the closer signal, you can see that two pairs of the front overhead lights are spaced rather close together, which I honestly quite like the look of. Sadly, one of the left-hand bulbs in these lights was out, but it's still nice to see them placed like this. Seems the crossing could use a bit of TLC in general as well, given that there's a dead bell here and at least one of the lights on the far signal is out too. The flasher relay here also briefly gets stuck on the normally closed contacts shortly after starting. Either way, this is a rather nice crossing, and I'm glad to have been able to get it recorded.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/B ... ngton_Jr4/