Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-27-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a dying Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO gate lights, and an NEG gate light.

This crossing is a very nice one. It originally had a pair of older SOU signals (most likely installed in the 1970s), but in the 1980s, likely after the right-hand signal was knocked down, due to having been replaced entirely at some point), NS upgraded almost all of the equipment here, including the relay case, but save for the gate mech and possibly the bell on the far signal, and then hasn't done any major upgrades here since, which is rather nice to see. This means that the bell is still set for to ring when the gates rise, though unfortunately, the bell sounds like it's starting to die as it clicks several times when the crossing starts before it starts to ring, and then severely struggles when the gates rise. Hopefully NS decides to fix it rather than replace it. The highway seen in the background is US 78.

*originally recorded on 10-6-24*

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

After catching 74G on the P Line, Zach and I raced back over to this crossing for the southbound Amtrak Crescent. When we got here, we found the crossing deactivating for some reason, and I was a bit afraid that we had just missed it, though checking the tracker showed that it was thankfully still to our east. I'm honestly not sure why the crossing was active when we got here, as we didn't hear anything blowing for any nearby crossings to our west (as the signal to our east had dropped to red before we went off to get 74G), so I suspect it was a malfunction.
Either way, after a little bit of waiting, EquusStorm and I were able to get our second train of the day: Amtrak 19 with a P42DC leading an ALC-42 for power and a friendly crew aboard!

As you can see, there have been a couple of changes here since I last recorded this crossing back in 2019 with TheCentralTexasRailfan. Sometime between 2022 and 2023, NS sadly replaced the (original?) Safetran mechanical bell here with the current GS Type 3 e-bell. Thankfully, the bell here is still set to ring when the gates rise, which is nice to see.
The closer signal here also got its gate lights replaced with a set of new RECO LED gate lights at some point.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Leeds/Spruiell/