Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Ocean Springs, MS

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-18-22*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a GRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, a GRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching the local freight at Church Street, I went a bit east over to this classic crossing to get it recorded. After a few hours of waiting, this eastbound mixed freight came through with a BNSF ES44DC leading a UP SD70M.

This crossing is a very nice one, and one that I'm quite glad I got to record. The signals here are another 1970s L&N install, but the only change appears to be that in the 80s or 90s, CSX replaced the bell here with the current WCH mechanical bell. Since then, these signals have thankfully remained largely unchanged.
As far as I'm aware, this crossing is one of only two fully 8 inch crossings left on the CSX NO&M Sub, and is also the only one with a mechanical bell left. In fact, this is also one of only four crossings left with a mechanical bell on the NO&M, and is the only one to have a confirmed working one. Ethan found another WCH mechanical bell and a Safetran mechanical bell further west, IIRC, but he didn't film the Safetran so we don't know if it still works or not. The WCH mechanical bell he found was unfortunately confirmed to be dead though. There's also a dead WRRS bell at a crossing in Pascagoula, having long since been replaced with a General Signals Type 2 on the gate mast. Fully 8 inch cantilevers like this are also always neat to see, IMHO, especially since they aren't too common to find down here, so I'm glad to see this crossing still has one.
The WCH mechanical bell does seem a bit on the weak side, but I don't know if that's just because I was on the opposite side of the crossing from it or not. Hopefully this classic equipment remains around here for many more years to come as well, but either way, I'm quite glad I was able to record it.