Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

The mailbox appears to be abandoned, as the door has been opened just about every time I've seen it, I believe. It's also in a spot where it couldn't be used for mail.

freebrickproductions wrote:The mailbox appears to be abandoned, as the door has been opened just about every time I've seen it, I believe. It's also in a spot where it couldn't be used for mail.

Who knows what that mysterious mailbox was for!

ToledoRailfan wrote:

freebrickproductions wrote:The mailbox appears to be abandoned, as the door has been opened just about every time I've seen it, I believe. It's also in a spot where it couldn't be used for mail.

Who knows what that mysterious mailbox was for!

Maybe back in the day they used it for train orders... or something to that effect. That would be my best guess.

Finally got around to uploading the videos of the new e-bell here, which replaced a dead Safetran mechanical bell:





And here's a video of just the e-bell and 7 inch gate light at the crossing:


It also appears that the flood lights on the signals are now non-functional.

No recent changes to the crossing.

No changes to this crossing as of 9-27-19, other than a little shelter being attached to the track-side of the relay case:

*originally recorded on 9-13-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Low Wattage LEDs.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Low Wattage LEDs and a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell.

After I caught NS A04 at Wall Triana Highway, I chased them on over to this crossing. Before they reached it, however, they had to stop and align a switch, which caused this crossing to activate and time-out, as seen in the first video.
Once the switch was aligned properly, the conductor walked-up to this crossing and made sure there wasn't anyone coming before A04 resumed their shove. Soon, I was able to catch A04 shoving back through this crossing to enter the intermodal terminal here, and drop-off the train they'd brought with them.

As you can see, since I was last here, this crossing has received a considerable upgrade to it, which had occurred by January of 2021. Probably the most noticeable change here was the lights, as the classic 8 inch lights here were sadly replaced with two sets of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Low Wattage LEDs. The WCH lights here seem to have either been ones that the HMCAA had bought years ago and held-onto, or were reused from somewhere else, as they feature the older design WCH was making up until about 2014 or so.
Another noticeable (and slightly unfortunate) change here by that time was that the HMCAA removed the long-dead flood lights from the tops of the signals. It makes sense these were removed, as they hadn't worked in years, but, sadly, as part of this, the GS Type 3 e-bell here was moved from the side of the relay case to the top of the mast of the closer signal.
Thankfully, at the very least, for the time being, this crossing retains its gateless mast signals. Apparently, at the time of writing this, ALDOT's recently put-out a letting to have James Record Road widened to five lanes from the current five lane section east of here to Laracy Drive to the west of here, which will undoubtedly force the upgrade of this crossing. As this is only just a letting for contractors to bid on, it ain't gonna start right yet, but it's clear the current signals here have their days numbered now.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... es_Record/

Still no changes here as of 1-28-24:

Still the same as of 2-25-24: