Fleming Road, Montgomery, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-3-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of RACO 8 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of RACO 8 inch lights, 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

While I was documenting a bunch of crossbuck crossings around the S&N Yard (and the north side of Montgomery in general), I saw an autorack train pull out of the ex-A&WP Yard and up to the crossing at Railroad Street & Court Street and stop. Thinking it was going to head to the Hyundai plant along the Dothan Sub on the south side of Montgomery, I decided to hang around the area documenting crossbuck crossings until it left. Fortunately, after a couple of hours, a crew got onboard, and the train departed. Racing on down to this crossing, I set-up and waited, fortunately getting quite lucky with my guess, as we see the train roll on through to Hyundai with a pair of ES40DCs for power! Not too bad of a train to end the trip off on.

This crossing was the last crossing I recorded on both my trip, and the Dothan Sub. It features a nice pair of older SCL signals, that are likely from the very early 1970s. It appears that this was a very early SCL Safetran install, before Safetran had even rebranded their 8 inch lights, though, like with the early Federal Signal installs, I'm going to keep calling the lights what they're branded as.
Over the years a few pieces of equipment have been replaced (including two of the overhead lights and both bells), but much of it still remains largely original, which is quite nice to see. It appears that later on in the 1970s, one of the rear overhead lights on the far signal was damaged and required to be replaced, causing that signal to gain the only Federal Signal light at this crossing. The crossing remained relatively unchanged for several more years, until the late-1990s, when the bell on the right-hand signal was replaced. Then, much more recently (likely in the early 2000s), the front-left overhead light was damaged, so CSX replaced it with a newer Safetran 12x24 inch light. Likely around this same time, the original bell on the far signal was also replaced with the current e-bell. The only change to this crossing since then was that the gate arms, and possibly the gate lights, on the closer signal were replaced.
While I would've loved to have recorded the far side of the crossing, as it still retains a set of incandescent gate lights, I decided to set-up on this side as it's a bit more interesting, IMHO, especially with the variety of lights facing the camera. Also, with how quiet the GS Type 1 is, it's definitely a good thing I set-up on this side, so y'all could hear it better.
Not entirely sure who made, or sold, the cantilevers here, but they appear to be from Walpar (like many other ones along this line). Interestingly enough, it appears that the original covers for the bases of both cantilevers were replaced at some point, for some reason, so I still have no idea who these were branded as.
This crossing is also the northernmost crossing on the CSX Dothan Sub with 8 inch lights. The next crossing north, which used to be the northernmost signalized crossing on the Dothan Sub for many years, also has a mechanical bell (the northernmost one along the line) and appears to be fully incandescent gate still as well. While it would've been nice to have recorded that one, I'm quite glad to have gone after this one instead. Currently, the northernmost signalized crossing along the line is also the northernmost one, since it appears that CSX installed a pair of modern gated signals there in about 2014/2015 to replace a pair of crossbucks.
All in all, this was a very nice crossing to end my trip off on, so I'm quite glad to have gotten it.