J.L. Chestnut Jr. Boulevard #1, Selma, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 4-20-23*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights with General Signals LEDs.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights with General Signals LEDs and a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell.

On April 20th, I went down to Selma mainly to check-out a bunch of older traffic lights there and hopefully record a crossing with a pair of old L&N cantilevers on the NS 3B South District, as well as documenting this one for the site. Unfortunately, said L&N cantilevers had already been replaced by a pair of modern NS ones (as they were very close to the path of the tornado that hit Selma earlier this year, I suspect they were damaged beyond repair by said tornado and replaced as a result), so I just got onto documenting the older traffic lights around Selma. While documenting some 4-ways in downtown Selma, I heard the Meridian & Bigbee approaching from the east, so I quickly got up to this crossing and set-up. After waiting for close to an hour while they worked their yard, they eventually got moving again and I was able to shoot them at this crossing with a quartet of G&W-painted SD40-2s for power, half of which were from the M&B while the other half were from the AGR.
After I shot this, I went back to documenting the old traffic lights around Selma.

This crossing is a very nice one, and I believe is the only 8 inch crossing left on the Meridian & Bigbee. These signals appear to have originally been installed by the L&N back in the 1970s, and remained largely unchanged for a few decades after. In the 2000s, however, either CSX or the Meridian & Bigbee replaced the bell here with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. Then, sometime between 2017 and 2022, the M&B upgraded the crossings along their line to LED, and this was no exception. Thankfully, rather than replacing the light heads here with new 12 inch ones, the M&B decided to use 8 inch LEDs and upgrade the existing MI lights, which was very nice to see.
I'm not _entirely_ sure who made these LEDs, however. They use what appears to be a shrunken-down version of a WCH 2nd Gen/Miller Ingenuity or General Signals MAX LED array, however, Miller Ingenuity (who makes the WCH 2nd Gen LEDs) does not sell, or at least advertise that they sell, 8 inch LEDs, and the ones I'd been assuming were 8 inch WCH 2nd Gen LEDs also use a different array for the LEDs, especially in regards to the central cluster, though I suppose those may have just been an earlier version or something. As such, my primary suspicion is that these are 8 inch General Signals LEDs, as GS does advertise some on their site, but seemingly don't have any pictures of them, so I've marked these LEDs as such, at least until we get confirmation on who makes these LEDs.