Market Street #1, Pascagoula, MS

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-19-22*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 Modern Industries 12x24 inch light with a WCH 2nd Generation LED, 1 Modern Industries 12x24 inch light with a Dialight Ball LED, 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a GRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After getting the three crossings in downtown Pascagoula recorded, I went over to this crossing to get the last crossing in Mississippi that I wanted to get recorded. After a few hours of waiting here, I caught what would be my fourth and final train of the day: a westbound mixed freight with a UP AC44CWCTE leading a UP AC45CCTE. After this, I continued back over to Mobile, but other than a TASD local that snuck-up on me while switching in downtown Mobile (and I missed as a result), I didn't see anything else on the CSX NO&M Sub before I went back to my hotel room for the night.

This crossing is another nice one, though it's been decently well modernized over the years. It appears that this crossing originally had two tracks, as the far cantilever is mounted rather far back from the crossing, and that there was a pair of cantilever signals that the L&N installed here back in the 1970s. In the 1980s, however, the SBD replaced at least the closer cantilever with the current one, but, interestingly enough, chose to re-use the two pairs of early MI 12x20s from the previous signal on the overhead lights here. Then, in the 2000s, a few upgrades here occurred. The bell here was replaced by a General Signals electronic bell, and the far signal had its gate mast moved closer to the remaining track with the previous gate mech being replaced by the current Safetran gate mech. It appears that after this, sometime around the mid-2000s, CSX replaced the far cantilever entirely with the current one. Finally, sometime between 2013 and 2015, the closer signal had its pair of mast lights upgraded with the current LEDs, and no major changes appear to have occurred to the signals since, thankfully.
Like with the previous crossings, the early MI 12x20s here are extremely dim, and it's especially so with the newer MI 12x24s located next to them. I'm kinda surprised that they didn't upgrade the overhead lights to LED along with the mast lights, TBH, though it is nice to see more incandescent lights in use. The mix of LEDs for the mast lights on the closer signal is also odd, though I'm guessing that's just what the maintainer had on hand at the time when they got upgraded. The WCH 2nd Gen LED has also had the LED array fall into the lens, something that I suspect will become much more common as the years go on.
Either way though, I'm glad to see the GRS gate mech on the closer signal still remains. I believe I've also recorded all of the remaining GRS gate mechs on the NO&M Sub with this crossing, for which I'm glad. Hopefully CSX gives the overhead lights, or at least the MI 12x20s, here some TLC, but other than that, I do hope the signals here remain largely unchanged as well. Either way though, I'm glad I've been able to record this crossing, and it was definitely a nicer one to end my NO&M Sub railfanning off on.