McNickle Drive, Smyrna, TN

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Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, a Modern Industries mechanical bell, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

This crossing also has a nice old L&N set-up from the 1970s, though the original bell was likely replaced with the Modern Industries mechanical bell later (along with the gates and gate lights, of course!).

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-28-22*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching the coal train, Ethan and I went on up to this crossing in Smyrna to wait for our next train. After about another half-hour of waiting, this southbound military train, S821, came rolling through with a YN2 Dash-9 leading a YN3 ES40DC! This was easily my best catch of the day.

As you can see, since I last recorded this crossing back in 2016, it has thankfully remained largely unchanged. Unfortunately, several years ago (I believe back in 2018), the original Modern Industries mechanical bell here was replaced with the current NEG e-bell. Thankfully, the 8 inch lights and GRS gate mechs still remain in service here and hopefully will for many more years to come.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/R-Z ... /McNickle/

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-11-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a GRS gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After I025 passed, I had gotten back into my car and was about to leave when I heard the MP 11.1 detector reading out for another southbound. This definitely confused me at first, as there wasn't anything lined through the siding just to my south. However, I quickly realized it was probably a local freight, so I made my way down to this crossing and set-up. Sadly, the local was able to sneak-up on me here and I accidentally reset my camera just before the crossing activated as a result. Regardless, I was still able to get my sixth and final train of the day here: CSX L446 with a trio of SD40-3s for power!

As you can see, this crossing looks quite a bit different from when I last recorded it back in 2022. Just a few weeks after that video, CSX did their LED upgrade to the Chattanooga Sub, so this crossing had its classic FS 8 inch lights replaced with the current LED WCH 12x24s. It appears that sometime after that video as well, CSX replaced two of the gate lights on the far signal with NEG LED gate lights. Thankfully, this crossing does still retain its old L&N install though, along with both of its original GRS Type D gate mechs. Definitely nice to see this pair is still going strong, I believe there are only four crossings left on the Chattanooga Sub with GRS Type D gate mechs still. In fact, I believe there are only about 10 crossings left in Middle Tennessee as a whole with GRS Type D gate mechs, which is definitely a bit sad to think about (three on the CSX Bruceton Sub, two on the CSX Mainline Sub, and one on the NERR). I'm definitely glad I and @EthantheRailfanner have gotten many of the ones that survived into the 2010s documented over the years though.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/R-Z ... /McNickle/

[freebrickproductions]

Got a better video of this crossing on 7-12-24: