Broad Street, Cowarts, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-29-19*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Federal Signal mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a WRRS mechanical bell, a WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

As the last rays of sunlight faded from the twilight sky, I was able to chase A724 over here and catch him one final time before it got too dark. This crossing is a very, very nice one, featuring a pair of classic RACO cantilevers installed by the early SCL. The right-hand one is pretty much a pure early SCL cantilever install, while the other one has had some upgrades done to it over the years.
The first upgrade appears to have been done in the 1970s, not too long after these signals were installed, with the WRRS mechanical bell being replaced with a Federal Signal mechanical bell. Then, in the 2000s, the original WRRS gate mech on that signal was replaced with a Safetran gate mech. Finally, sometime between 2018 and 2019, the far cantilever had all of its lights upgraded to LED, though the closer signal remained untouched, outside of its gate arm and gate lights being replaced in the same time period.
It appears that either the right-hand gate light on the closer signal was defective and died very young, or CSX messed-up its installation, as it doesn't light-up, for whatever reason.
Another noteworthy thing about this crossing is the remaining WRRS gate mechanism. From what I understand, this gate mech was actually a product of a collaboration between WRRS and US&S, and was essentially the predecessor to the US&S/WABCO Model 75 gate mech. There's another crossing along the line up in Ozark that still has a pair of these, though unfortunately, I was never able to record it. Still nice to be able to get at least this one on video though, as apparently these are quite hard to find in service these days!

[freebrickproductions]

On 8-1-19, I went back and got a better video of this crossing during the day:


No changes had occured between the two videos, and it was nice getting to hear the WRRS/Federal Signal bell pair again.

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 4-2-22*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Federal Signal mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a dead WRRS mechanical bell, a WRRS gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.

This was the seventh and last crossing I caught Q650 at on April 2nd. I tried to chase it over into Dothan after this, but sadly he beat me into the yard there.

As you can see, not much has changed to this crossing since I last recorded it in 2019. In fact, like with Stern Avenue, the only change here is that one of the gate lights here was replaced. This time, however, the dead NEG LED gate light that was here was replaced with a new RECO LED gate light. Otherwise, this crossing is pretty much still exactly the same.
Unfortunately, like with Stern Avenue and the other two crossings I'd recorded before this one, this crossing now features a dead bell at it to, being the WRRS bell on the closer signal. Certainly a shame to see that the cool FS/WRRS bell pair here is no longer audible. I'd certainly like to see CSX repair the WRRS bell here, but I would not be too surprised if CSX replaces it with an NEG e-bell.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Cowarts/Broad/