Cantilever signal on the left: Lincoln Industries Cantilever, Safetran Gate Mechanism, 5 Pairs of Safetran 12x24 Lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, NEG Gatelights, and a General Signals Type 2 E-Bell
Base signal on the far left: Safetran Base, Safetran Gate Mechanism, Safetran 12x20 Lights with Dialight Bulb LEDs, NEG Gatelights, and a Safetran Type 2 E-Bell
Base signal on the near left: Safetran Base, Safetran Gate Mechanism, Safetran 12x20 Lights with Dialight Bulb LEDs, NEG Gatelights, and a Safetran Type 2 E-Bell
Cantilever signal on the right: Lincoln Industries Cantilever, Safetran Gate Mechanism, 5 Pairs of Safetran 12x24 Lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, NEG Gatelights, and a General Signals Type 2 E-Bell
Location:
North Mt. Juliet Road
Mt. Juliet, Tennessee
Crossing is on the Nashville and Eastern Railroad
Locomotives:
L&N 405 - GP7
TCRM 6902 - E8
Re: N Mt. Juliet Rd, Mt. Juliet Tennessee
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 12:02 pm
by freebrickproductions
*originally recorded on 8-25-23*
Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Far median signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Near median signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
After catching the Star train heading to Nashville from Mt. Juliet, I went over to this crossing where, after a bit of waiting, I was able to catch the first outbound Star train heading back to Lebanon with an F40PH-3 for power.
This crossing is a fairly decent one, and, although the equipment here ain't the most spectacular, it has had quite the interesting history to it. It appears that originally, there were some gateless Tennessee Central signals here, including an old TC-era US&S(?) cantilever on the north side of the crossing, which appears to have been modified some by the 2000s. In the 1980s or 1990s, it appears that the NERR upgraded the overhead lights on the cantilever to a set of Modern Industries or Harmon 12x20 inch lights. In the mid-2000s, as part of the preparations for the Music City (now WeGo) Star, this crossing was upgraded, with the closer signal being replaced entirely with a new gated mast signal and the old TC-era cantilever here being retained, but another gated mast signal being installed in front of it as that signal's gate mast. Both mast signals featured incandescent Safetran 12x24s, it appears, Safetran Type 2 e-bells, Safetran gate mechs, and 7 inch gate lights, with the old cantilever itself thankfully remaining untouched (other than the possible removal of any mast lights, that is), for the time being.
In the early-2010s, Mt. Juliet widened the road here from just three lanes to five lanes (four lanes divided at the crossing), which necessitated the signals here to be upgraded. In 2011, both of the current cantilever signals here were installed, with the old TC-era one on the north side having sadly been removed, though both originally featured GS Type 2 e-bells. The median signals were reused, though were originally temporarily installed in the median to protect opposing traffic while the widening project was going on. At about this time, the closer median signal had its lights replaced with the current Safetran 12x20s with Dialight Ball LEDs, while the farther one retained its original incandescent Safetran 12x24s. At the time, both even retained their original Safetran Type 2 e-bells, though they may have been disconnected by this point. All of the gate lights were replaced with 4 inch NEG LED gate lights as well.
By 2013, the widening project had finished-up, and with it, the upgrade to this crossing. Both of the median signals were rotated 180° to protect the traffic on their side of the crossing, and the far signal had its lights replaced with more Safetran 12x20s with Dialight Ball LEDs. This crossing would remain largely unchanged for several years, until 2019. In 2019, RJ Corman replaced both of the bells on the cantilevers here with the current GS Type 3 e-bells, and removed the long-dormant Safetran Type 2 e-bells from the mast signals. Since then, the only notable change here appears to have been the replacement of all of the gate lights on three of the four gate arms here with the RECO-style NEG LED gate lights, with the crossing remaining largely the same otherwise.
Even with the equipment being fairly modern here, there are still a couple of neat features at this crossing. For starters, the far median signal still retains an old white NERR ENS sign, which is rather neat to see. The closer cantilever also features an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, which I believe is the only one on the Nashville & Eastern as a whole. Interestingly, this gate mechanism also appears to be an S-40, due to how quiet it seems to be, which are rare to find with Invensys Rail branding due to the fact that most railroads were using S-60s at the time these were made. All in all, this is a neat crossing, and I'm glad to have finally been able to film it.