Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-30-19*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Harmon 8 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 Harmon 8 inch light, 1 WRRS 8 inch light, 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights, 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO gate lights, and RECO LED gate light.

After catching A724 in Cowarts, I decided to try chasing them on over to this crossing in Dothan. This was easily one of the tightest chases I've ever done though, as within a few minutes of parking and setting up, the crossing activated and CSX A724 rolled on through on their way to the Dothan Yard.

This crossing is a pretty nice one as well. It features a pair of SCL cantilevers from the 70s, which appear to still be mostly original. At some point, it appears that one of the mast lights on the closer cantilever was replaced with a re-used WRRS 8 inch light, but the crossing remained otherwise mostly unchanged until at least 2008, according to Google Street View.
Then, sometime between 2008 and 2009, both of the original Safetran mechanical bells were replaced, with the far one being replaced with the current Safetran Type 2 e-bell and the closer one being replaced with a General Signals e-bell (most likely a Type 2). Around the same time CSX replaced the original Safetran 8 inch lights on the gate mast of the far signal for some reason, though I wouldn't be too surprised to find out one was struck and needed replacement.
Most recently, sometime between 2013 and 2018, the GS e-bell on the right-hand signal died and was replaced with the current NEG e-bell. Given how shiny the bell was last year, I wouldn't be surprised if it was very close to the summer of 2018 that it was installed.
The crossing does still retain mostly incandescent gate lights though, it appears, which is quite nice to see.
Also, as you can see, the crossing did a tail-ring malfunction not long after it had shut-off. If I had to guess, this was due to the train slowing down as it entered the Dothan Yard, causing the grade crossing predictor to think a second train was coming before the train was able to completely leave the detection circuits.