US 31 #1, Calera, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 4-2-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On April 2nd, I got on up bright and early (at like 4 in the morning) and got going back on down to the Birmingham Metro area, to ensure I'd be able to chase A84 as much as possible. Well, I was in luck as I was able to get down to Winton before they got on duty. However, as it turns out, A84 itself starts in Roberta (even though the crew gets on in Winton), so I had to begin my chase in Calera. After a while of waiting, A84 pulled up to just before the diamond with CSX and stopped, causing this crossing to time out.
After waiting for some CSX MOW equipment to clear the diamond on the CSX S&NA South Sub, NS A84 got permission to head east across the diamond. Here we see them going across US 31 with the same pair of SD40-2s for power as last time, starting my chase of them.

This crossing is a bit of an interesting one, even though the signals are somewhat boring. It appears that the bells here are set to shut-off when the gates are lowered, but the closer gate mech doesn't stay down all the way, which causes the bell on it to start ringing again. It appears the right-hand signal has a tendency to get whacked by turning cars and trucks.
It appears that originally, this crossing had a pair of old Transport Products Corp. signals installed by the Southern Railway (or whomever owned this line at the time). Then, in the 1970s, at least the gate mech on the far signal was replaced, followed by the lights in the 1980s. Then, in the late-90s/early 2000s, the closer signal was replaced by a more modern NS signal, though the far signal remained relatively unchanged until sometime between 2009 and 2013 when one of the lights was replaced. The crossing would remain the same for a while (it appears) until sometime around 2015/2016 (possibly 2014 as well), when both signals were replaced entirely with the current ones, which don't appear to have seen any major changes since they were installed. Certainly a bit of an interesting history here.
US 31 #2 can also kinda be seen just beyond the crossing, though the remaining crossbuck there was removed.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Calera/US31_1/