Meighan Boulevard (US 278/US 431) #2 & 6th Street #4, Gadsden, AL

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*originally recorded on 10-8-19*

Signal on the left: 2.5 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights and 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light.
Far median signal: 1 pair of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights and a (dying?) WCH mechanical bell.
Near median signal: 1 pair of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2.5 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, 1 WCH 12x20 inch light, and a Federal Signal mechanical bell.

After catching the local at 9th Street #1, I chased it over to the double crossing on the Goodyear Branch at 6th Street and Meighan Boulevard. Before they got on the branch though, they cut-off the loaded centerbeam flatbeds just before the wye at the end of the branch.

This crossing is a bit of an interesting one, and not just for being a double crossing. The signals were installed by the late-L&N, and while 6th Street #4 is pretty much a standard L&N install of the era, which is quite nice. Meighan Boulevard was also installed at the same time, but is a bit different. The bell on the eastbound cantilever signal, interestingly enough, appears to be re-used from some older signals that were here, as it's a Federal Signal bell! In the years since it was installed, it appears that the original bell on one of the median signals was replaced in the 1980s by the Seaboard System. Then, between 2008 and 2014, the left-hand mast light on the cantilever with the Federal Signal bell was replaced with the WCH 12x20, while, around the same time, the front-left overhead light on the other cantilever was also replaced, with the replacement being a Safetran 12x24. No other changes have occured to either of these crossings since though.
Unfortunately, the WCH bell sounds like it's starting to die, so the trio of mechanical bells here will probably not be around within a few years. Thankfully, the Federal Signal bell still sounds quite good, so that was nice to see.
The crossings also activate a bit weirdly. For whatever reason, Meighan Boulevard activated before 6th Street, despite the fact that it was approaching from the direction of 6th Street. 6th Street also stayed active longer than Meighan Boulevard once the train passed. Not entirely sure why this happened, and I'm not sure if this also happens when the train is heading back to the ATN's Mineral Loop.

Also, Gadsden's street naming is weird. Like many cities, Gadsden has a numbered street grid, that's centered on part of the city, in this case, the Coosa River for the streets (avenues are numbered south of US 431, and lettered north of 431), with the exceptions of streets that aren't numbered among them, for some reason. However, as a result, there's two 6th Streets, one on the west side of the river, and one on the east side of the river, each with two crossings. And like most cities, these roads all have cardinals added onto them, with the north/south being centered on Broad Street. Unfortunately, rather than combining them with east/west to divide the city into four quadrants. As such, the crossings on both the eastern and western 6th Streets are all on "North 6th Street". Meaning, that in my numbering system (for crossings that share a road name), this crossing wound-up being 6th Street #4.

Also, due to the fact that this is a double crossing, there wasn't a good place to set-up to get both crossings in one shot. As such, I set-up my secondary camera at 6th Street #4, and my primary camera at Meighan Boulevard #2.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/G ... ghan2_6_4/