Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-24-19*

Love Street #1 (Far Crossing):
Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

Love Street #2 (Near Crossing):
Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with GE Dotted LEDs, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with GE Dotted LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On the 24th, I got on up and decided to swing by to Conecuh Valley Railroad to see if they were running. Luckily for me, not only were they running, but they had to take a single hopper to interchange with the CSX (which, from what I understand, the interchange is only done about once a week). As such I was able to chase the train over to this crossing, where they waited for the CSX dispatcher to let them onto the Dothan Sub. After a few minutes, they got permission and went onto the interchange with the railroad's lone SW1500 pulling the hopper to be dropped off.

The signals here are all pretty recent, having been installed in 2018. When I visited here in the summer of 2018, both crossings were all crossbucks, though the signal with (what would eventually have) the bell was already standing, though missing everything but the gate mech and crossbuck. The Love Street #2 crossing had its crossbucks on the "wrong" side of the road, at the time. Of course, since then, the CSX crossing had its installation finished, and the COEH installed their signals.
How the crossings operate is a bit odd as well. As you can see, when a train is at the COEH crossing, all three gate arms lower and raise at about the same time. However, when a train is on CSX's track, both outer gates will lower first, followed by the inner gate, similar to the Lee Street crossing in Pelham. Also, while the COEH crossing is the one that's active, it appears that the NEG e-bell on CSX's crossing will continue to ring until the gates rise, while the GS Type 3 on the COEH crossing will ring when the gates lower and rise, but shut-off when the gates are lowered. IIRC, both bells shut-off when a train is on CSX's track.