Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

(Not entirely sure what's up with the thumbnail, as that's an issue on YouTube's end.)


*originally recorded on 3-21-18*

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

This crossing was likely installed around the same time as Old Memphis Road in Tuscumbia, and as such is has a very similar set-up to that crossing, right down to which bells it has and if they work or not. Unfortunately, as you can see, the wind knocked my camera off of alignment here again, so I'll have to go back and get a better recording of this crossing. At least the shot of the engines passing was decent enough. I've also gotten a "new" tripod today (3-27-18) that's much heavier and sturdier than this one, so it shouldn't get knocked-around as much by the wind. You'll see videos with it when I get around to uploading my videos from today (3-27-18), which should hopefully be soon. This crossing is also technically a private crossing for a quarry that's seen beyond it, though it's called "Vulcan Road" on the relay case (and by the FRA, IIRC), so I'm gonna label it that as well.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/Cherokee/Vulcan/

What is wrong with the thumbnail? Also that red light in between the two traffic signals is interesting.

ToledoRailfan wrote:What is wrong with the thumbnail? Also that red light in between the two traffic signals is interesting.

It's some kind of issue with YouTube, as it seems like YouTube's been mixing up the thumbnails between uploads lately, though it's finally updated to a proper one. The beacon between the two signals is for an old xenon strobe, though the strobe part of it doesn't work anymore. For whatever reason, Alabama prefers to have strobes mounted separately from the signals themselves.

No changes here as of yesterday:

*originally recorded on 6-24-23*

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

After catching NS 289 in Mississippi, I returned back to Cherokee to see about getting this crossing re-recorded. While waiting for a train here, the crossing unexpectedly malfunctioned due to the heat, which I was just barely able to catch.

After getting the malfunction here, I continued to wait for a train. Eventually, after about 2 hours since I'd seen NS 289, NS A83 came flying back through towards Sheffield Yard with the same GP38-2, now running long-hood forwards.

As you can see, since I had last filmed this crossing, NS has replaced the dead General Signals e-bell on the far side with a Safetran Type 3 e-bell. They also changed the bells here so that they ring while the gates rise now, which is rather neat to see as well. No other major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing since my last video here, however.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Cherokee/Vulcan/