Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Well, the other pair of 12x24s here have been replaced:


*originally recorded on 9-15-18*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

Sometime recently, NS decided to replace the mast lights on this side of the crossing with another pair of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, meaning that all of the lights at this crossing are now of the same size. In fact, I believe the 12x24s that had been here were re-used at Madison Boulevard in Madison. The crossbucks here have also gotten a slight change with the lone "Tracks" sign on one disappearing, though I'm not sure if the other crossbuck's track sign still says 3 Tracks or if it's been corrected. Other than that, no other changes to report here, and the Huntsville Depot still stands tall next to the crossing.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... e/Church1/

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

Finally got a video here after NS replaced all of the overhead lights. Other than that, no changes here since my last video.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... le/Church1

*the first video was originally recorded on 5-2-20*
*the second video was originally recorded on 5-6-20*

Old signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, a RECO LED gate light, and RECO gate lights.
Old signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Non-functional new signal on the right: 2 pairs of bagged Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals (Type 3?) electronic bell, and a Siemens gate mechanism.

On May 2nd, I went out to try and catch NS 201 with the Southern Heritage Unit leading. After getting word it was past Stevenson, I came out here and waited for him to come through, which was sadly after the sun had set. Thankfully, there was plenty of ambient light with made the video come out decently, and it was still nice to see it again, so I'm glad I was able to.
I also met-up with a few other local railfans here, one of whom brought his truck which has an RS3K mounted on it. As you can hear, he blew it a few times during the video.

While waiting for 362 in Madison on May 6th, I had heard that he was gonna be seeing a pair of westbound mixed freights at Brock, so after catching NS 362, FanFan61618 and I went out to downtown Huntsville to wait on the next one. Eventually, the second train of the day came through: NS 365 with a pair of AC44C6Ms leading a Dash-9 and an SD60e.

As you can see, NS is in the process of upgrading the crossing here. This is because the city is widening Church Street to five lanes (it currently drops from 5 to 3 at the crossing when heading north), so the signals have to be replaced as a result, sadly. However, the new signals will also protect the yard track here, which will be nice to see. Still a shame that the Memphis East will be losing another mechanical bell though.
Also, for some reason, while the train was passing the crossing shut off a few times, though only once were the gates able to go all the way up. I'm not entirely sure why this happened, as when I returned here for a daytime video a few days later, they worked fine, but I suspect it was due to the upgrade work going on here. Will be interesting to track the progress of this upgrade though.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... e/Church1/

*originally recorded on 11-1-20*

Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and a RECO gate light.

After catching 22N in Ryland, I continued on over to this crossing to finally get a proper video of the new signals here in action (with MadisonCountySirensYT having recorded them long before I did). I had heard there was an NS 362 around somewhere, but I apparently thought they were gonna have it meet 101 at either Irvington or Elko, so I was a bit surprised to see the signal at Holmes Avenue turn red while I was waiting. As such, I got to see NS 362 come through here. The power on him was a Dash-9 leading an AC44C6M, another Dash-9, and an ES44AC, which was quite nice to see.

As you can see, the old SOU-era cantilever signals are long-gone, and these shiny new cantilevers now protect both tracks. The crossbucks have yet to be removed, but I suspect that'll happen when the city widens Church Street on that side of the crossing. Like with Venson Street in Woodville, the LEDs here also flicker on camera, for some reason. Also like another crossing, McEntire Lane in Decatur, to be exact, NS has snuck in an incandescent gate light on the closer signal, though this time it's the one closest to the gate mech.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... e/Church1/

Got a video of the other side on 11-21-21:

The crossbuck on this side of the crossing was also removed between these two videos, but the one between the two tracks here still remains.

No major changes to the signals here as of 12-17-22:


However, as you can see, the widening of Church Street has been completed, and the remaining crossbuck that once guarded the yard track is now gone as well.

*originally recorded on 1-28-24*

Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After A04 had picked-up the outbounds, the crew sadly outlawed and had to tie-down on the branch, so I wasn't able to get another video of Madison Boulevard. However, NS 286 was still working downtown Madison at the time, so I decided to head back to downtown Huntsville to see about catching it. After a little while of waiting, NS 286 came rolling through with a pair of AC44C6Ms for power, running elephant-style.

I decided to head back to Church Street as I hadn't filmed it in over a year, and felt like it was probably worth refilming these modern NS cantilevers again. Interestingly, since I last filmed this crossing, there's been a couple of changes to the closer signal. First off, it appears that the left-rear mast light was replaced, though the replacement head was just another Safetran 12x20 with a GE Uniform Look LED. The current head is mounted closer to the mast than the original one though, it seem.
Also, probably at about the same time, the lone incandescent gate light here was also replaced with a RECO LED gate light, making this crossing fully LED for the first time. I suspect the closer gate arm must've been replaced for one reason or another, as the base gate light is now closer to the gate mechanism than the original one.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... e/Church1/

*originally recorded on 5-23-24*

Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light, and RECO LED gate lights.

After I caught I125 in Cullman, I hit the road back up to Huntsville. As I was heading east down I-565, I saw 362 going through Elko and decided to try and catch it at this crossing. Thankfully, I was able to beat them here by a minute or two, and was successfully able to get my seventh and final train of the day: NS 362 with a UP AC45CCTE leading an NS Dash-9 and an NS AC44C6M for power. Certainly not a terrible train to end off the day on, as after this I just continued on home due to how late it was.

Since I was last here, NS has replaced the base gate light on the closer signal with a new NEG LED gate light, the second one of these I'm aware of on the Memphis East. No other changes appear to have occurred to the signals here since I last recorded them, however.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... e/Church1/

No changes here as of 9-6-24:

Still the same as of 6-18-25: