Joinertown Road, Columbiana, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 3-26-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and a Safetran mechanical bell.

After catching A84 in Wilsonville, I continued chasing them on over here to Columbiana, beating them to this crossing with just a few minutes to spare. Here we see A84 continuing on their journey back to Roberta, going at a pretty decent pace through this town.

This crossing is another great one, especially since it's a gateless crossing with one of the last four mechanical bells on the Rome Line. To make it even better, the bell here is also a 1st Generation Safetran mechanical bell, and it still sounds very healthy! Hopefully it'll be here for many more years to come.
This crossing is another 1970s SOU install, though it was installed in the early 70s. The crossing actually remained almost completely unchanged from when it was installed until sometime after 2013, when the original Safetran 8 inch lights were replaced with the current Safetran 12x20s. Not entirely sure when this was done, but I'm guessing it was either in 2015 or 2017, which was about when the 8 inch lights in Talladega and Calera were replaced, respectively. Either way, even without the 8 inch lights anymore, this is still quite a nice crossing and I'm glad to have recorded it.
The car you see on the crossing at the start of the video was actually another pair of local railfans, who were also out chasing this train. Like the guy I met earlier in Childersburg though, they were also just getting pictures.
You can also hear the Columbiana defect detector go off after the crossing activates.