82nd Street, West Allis, WI

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-16-23*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Griswold EM gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the far right: 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs.
Signal on the near right: 3 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a dead Safetran mechanical bell, a Griswold EM gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
This crossing is located in a quiet zone. Trains do not blow their horns at this crossing.

On November 16th, the day before Ponyville Ciderfest, I got on up and went out to see about shooting the surviving EM signals around Milwaukee. I went to this crossing, located just a few blocks south of my hotel, and set-up to wait for a train. After a few hours of waiting, I was able to get my first train of the day: UP LBU51 heading south through West Allis with a GP40-2 for power.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring a classic pair of Griswold EM signals installed by the C&NW. In the 1970s, it appears the C&NW replaced all of the lights here with the current Safetran 8 inch lights, along with replacing the bell on the closer signal with the Safetran mechanical bell. In the 2000s, UP upgraded the lights here to LED, followed by installing a WCH e-bell on the far signal sometime between 2007 and 2015. Sometime between 2019 and 2023, UP replaced the WCH e-bell on the far signal with the current NEG e-bell, but left the dead Safetran alone for some reason.
Thankfully, no other changes have occurred here and this crossing retains its classic Griswold EM signals with the LED Safetran 8 inch lights, which I'm very glad to see are still around. The backgrounds on the far signal's lights were cut a bit to accommodate the counterweight arms, while the same didn't happen to the closer signal. The lights on the right-hand signal are all nicely faded though. I believe this is the first crossing I've filmed with 8 inch EMs still.