Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-1-18*

Signal on the far left: 4 pairs of Harmon 12x24 inch lights, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the near left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.

Due to the fact that the line is mostly "dark territory" (doesn't have any block signals in service along the line), and as such, the train are limited to about 25 MPH (IIRC), I was easily able to beat him up to this crossing just south of Banks, AL. The train wound-up stopping for a little bit while the conductor got out and aligned the switch so the train could proceed into the siding to stop. Not sure why they did that, though if I had to guess, there was a southbound coming that they were waiting on. I had to get onto Florida after this though, so I couldn't wait around to see what happened afterwards. Either way, getting two crossings along this line recorded is better than none!

No, you aren't seeing things and no, that is not a typo in the description. Neither is there another crossing behind the camera either, nor is it one-way as well; this crossing literally just has one gate at it! I'm guessing that when these signals were installed, CSX didn't think that there was enough room on the right-hand side for a gated cantilever signal, so they just did this instead. I'm honestly not sure why they didn't just turn the painted median into a physical one and put two gated signals on the right side (one on the shoulder for the right-turn lane and one on the median), but I'm guessing CSX figured that it'd be cheaper to do it this way and wouldn't really matter in the long run due to the lack of trains this line sees. There's another two-way crossing with only one gate at it in a town along the CSX M&M Subdivision, though the signal at that crossing was installed around 2010 it appears. Also, slightly less odd but still slightly odd, the cantilever signal has a pair of side lights mounted on the gate mast rather than the cantilever mast. And I've finally recorded an almost-pure early-2000s CSX install! Only took me going to a crossing with one gate on a little-used CSX mainline in south Alabama to do it...

*originally recorded on 4-2-22*

Signal on the far left: 4 pairs of Harmon 12x24 inch lights, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the near left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.

This was the fourth crossing I caught CSX B211 at. After getting this phosphate train in Ozark, I'd originally decided to skip Brundidge entirely and just go on up to the crossing in Banks with a cats-eyed crossbuck. Unfortunately, but the time I got up here, the clouds had mostly thinned out, and likely wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. As such, after a bit of waiting and deciding that the shot would be too backlit on the side with the cats-eyed crossbuck, I decided to try to head back down to Brundidge and probably re-record the crossing with a late-70s SCL install, just to see if the Safetran bell there was still dead or not. However, as I was driving towards Brundidge, I saw that the train was already approaching Banks, so I decided to quickly turn around. As I was able to beat it here, I decided to get another video of this crossing.
You can also hear the nearby defect detector going off as the train is reaching the crossing.

As you can see, nothing too major has changed to this crossing since I was last here. However, sometime within the past few years, CSX has done a couple of smaller changes to this crossing. First off, and probably the more major change here, the gate arm on the far signal appears to have been replaced entirely, and now features all NEG LED gate lights, but the gate stabilizer wasn't re-installed on it. On the closer side of the crossing, the right-hand signal here seems to have been struck at some point, and CSX replaced the original Safetran base here with a WCH one.
Unfortunately, due to the base here being replaced, the crossing is no longer a "pure" late-90s CSX install. However, it does still retain it's GS Type 1, thankfully. The crossing also still has its rather unusual set-up with just one gate arm on the far side of the crossing. Kinda surprised CSX hasn't tried to install some gated signals on this side of the crossing yet, TBH.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Banks/AL201/