Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-22-19*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, and 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of WRRS cast-iron 8 inch lights.

After I caught A724, I went to the other side of the CSX Dothan Yard to try and catch them heading north from there. However, they tied down to get a new crew, but fortunately for me, the evening CSX yard job, CSX A739, was coming back from Ozark with a single ES40DC for power. I probably could've recorded another crossing in Pinckard, as he did stop and drop off some cars for the mill there, but I didn't.

This crossing is a very nice one, and I'm glad I was able to record it so early on my trip. It appears that the signals here were originally a pair of all WRRS cantilevers like the one on the right, installed by the ACL, most likely in the 1950s. However, in the 1970s, the far signal was (most likely) knocked-down and replaced with the current Federal Signal-branded Walpar cantilever, and likely had a set of Federal Signal 8 inch lights on the mast. Then, in the later 1970s or 1980s, likely due to the mast lights being struck by a vehicle, the mast lights were replaced by a set of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights. Finally, in the 1990s, it appears the signal was struck again and the mast lights closest to the road were replaced with a pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights by CSX.
However, while the far signal kept having changes done to it, the near signal managed to survive almost completely unchanged, even retaining the original cats-eyed crossbuck up until sometime between 2013 and 2016 when CSX replaced it!
The lights here are also all rather nicely faded, though you can't really see it in the video due to how late this was recorded. I am quite glad to have been able to record it though, as it was a pretty high-priority crossing for me to get, especially due to the cantilever on the right.

*originally recorded on 4-2-22*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, and 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of WRRS cast-iron 8 inch lights.

While chasing CSX Q650 to Dothan, I saw reports in the Alabama Rails Facebook group about a CSX B211 sitting in Dothan with Canadian Pacific power on it. As such, when I got finished with Q650, I decided to hop on up to this crossing in Midland City. B211 was waiting on the local freight to get back into the yard, but by the time I got up here, they were already back to the yard. As such, I decided to go ahead and set-up here to get B211, since I wanted to get a better video of this crossing. After a bit of waiting, CSX B211 came rolling through here with a CP AC44CW leading a CSX ES40DC on the head-end, and a CP AC44CWM rebuild working as the DPU! Certainly nice getting to see CP power again, believe this was the first time I'd caught CP power on a train since 2017!

As you can see, there have thankfully been no major changes to this crossing since I last recorded it. I'm especially grateful that the old ACL cantilever on the right is still here, especially since it's the last cantilever of this style in service in Alabama. Hopefully CSX continues to leave this crossing untouched for many more years to come, but either way, I'm glad I was finally able to get a good video of it.
Also, as y'all can see, one of the rear overhead lights on the far cantilever had a blown bulb in it at the time.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Midland_City/3/