Academy Drive, Dallas, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-27-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

After catching 26C, I continued on south to Dallas to get this crossing filmed. Less than half an hour after I got here, and about half an hour after I saw 26C, I was able to get my sixth train of the day: NS 732 with a pair of BNSF ES44ACs pulling on the head-end and a pair of BNSF SD70ACes working as the DPUs. The crew also gave a horn show as they passed, as the engineer's girlfriend had chased him to this crossing.

This crossing is another fairly nice one, and was one I had wanted to film on my previous excursion out here, but sadly wasn't able to film before it got too dark. The signals here appear to have been installed in by the Southern Railway back in the early-1970s, but, in the 1980s, NS replaced the original 8 inch lights here with the current Safetran 12 inch lights, though originally these featured 24 inch backgrounds on them. The crossing remained unchanged for a good few years after that, until sometime between 2013 and 2015 when the original 1st Gen Safetran mechanical bell here was replaced with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. Finally, sometime between 2015 and 2016, the lights here had all of their original 24 inch backgrounds replaced with the current 20 inch ones, and thankfully no further major changes have occurred to this crossing since.
Despite the modernizations over the years, this crossing has retained its original early-70s Safetran gate mechs, which are quite nice to see. Believe this is one of only two crossings on the Atlanta North that still retains them, and now I've been able to thankfully film both. Hopefully these older signals remain around here for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I was able to have gotten this one filmed.

After the train passed, the crossing did a short tail-ring malfunction that I also got a quick video of.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/A-F/Dallas/Academy/