50th Street #1, Birmingham, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 4-3-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of US&S 8 inch lights and a very flat-sounding WCH mechanical bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.

This crossing is a pretty nice one. On the far side, you have an old SAL mast signal that's mostly original, save for the WCH mechanical bell that undoubtedly replaced the original Teardrop bell here back in the 80s (installed by CSX, of course). Back in 2012, the bell still sounded pretty healthy, but by 2015 it had died. Since then, it has been fixed, but now sounds very flat, likely due to the previous issues it's had along with appearing to have been hit at least a few times due to where it's located. Although not visible, there is a vandal-guard remaining on the signal as well, oddly enough on the light that one would think would be hit the most.
The other signal is obviously much newer, likely replacing the original SAL signal here (which I bet was one of those "micro-cantilevers" that the SAL liked to use). I'm not entirely sure when it was installed, or whether the SCL or SBD installed it, as it features an older 1970s Safetran cantilever with newer (relatively speaking) Safetran lights from the 1980s. Personally, I suspect it was put up in the 1980s by the SBD with the cantilever itself being reused from an SAL install somewhere.
The crossing also timed out shortly after activating the first time, as the train pulled forwards a bit before stopping.

Also, if you plan on recording this crossing, be careful. CMC Steel doesn't allow photography on their property, nor do they allow people to park anywhere on their (poorly marked as such) property. If anyone's curious as to what's defined as their property, it's everything immediately around 50th Street at the crossing (including the driveways and empty lots) and everything on the north side of the crossing, including the spur there.
As such, if you really want to railfan here, I'd recommend parking along 3rd Avenue (just south of this crossing) and walking up to the crossing along the sidewalk might keep you from getting harassed, but don't be surprised if the security tries to harass you anyways. Also, as CMC owns everything on the north side of the crossing, stick to the south side of the crossing. They also don't want people videoing the trains when the trains are on their spur, so make sure you aren't set-up when that's going on.
Also, having explicit permission from the train crew, like I did (including having the awesome engineer himself going over to chat with the security people at their main gate to get all of this cleared up), will probably help, as the security didn't harass me after that happened. However, I'm still going to recommend not railfanning here, especially if you want to avoid a headache.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Birmingham/50/