Erickton Drive, Choccolocco, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 3-27-25*

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

After catching 395, I was heading back towards Anniston when I saw that 395 was meeting an eastbound mixed freight at CP Ardrey in DeArmanville, so I decided to quickly turn around and head back over to this crossing to record it. After a bit of waiting (and while I was documenting the new LED gate lights here for the site), I was able to catch my seventh, and probably my best, train of the day: an eastbound mixed freight with a pair of SD70ACes leading an SD60e, and SD40e, and a pair of SD40-2s on the head-end with an AC44C6M working as the DPU! This train easily had the largest all-EMD lash-up I've ever caught on the head-end, even with the DPU being a GE.

This crossing is a pretty nice little one, featuring a 90s NS install that I ain't entirely sure if it's from the mid-90s (and possibly had both bells replaced by the time street view first came through) or late-90s. Either way, it appears that at least the far signal's bell was the current Safetran Type 3 e-bell in the 2000s. Possibly around the same time, maybe slightly before, the closer signal may have also had its bell replaced with an e-bell of some flavor (maybe GS?). Then, sometime between 2015 and 2018 (per a video from ACs_Trains), NS replaced the bell on the closer signal with the current GS Type 3 e-bell. Thankfully, since then, nothing too major appears to have changed to this crossing.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/C ... /Erickton/