Lee Street, Napier Field, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-30-19*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

After I caught Murray Road timing out, I swung by the Dothan Yard office to see when the next crew was supposed to come on duty. Fortunately for me, the new crew was getting on duty rather quickly, so I decided to head on over to Napier Field to try and catch them. And just as the sun was setting over the small town, A724 came flying on through about 2 hours after I had recorded Murray Road timing out.

This crossing is a fairly interesting one (and was another high-priority one for me), for what should be a fairly obvious reason: the right-hand signal lacks any front lights! The signals themselves are pretty standard SBD Safetran signals from the 1980s, for the most part, but in the mid-2000s, CSX replaced the original Safetran mechanical bells here with a pair of Safetran Type 2 e-bells. Most recently, sometime between 2018 and 2019, the gate arm on the far side was replaced with a newer one. Not sure if the gate lights were replaced as well, but as the old gate arm appeared to have a full set of newer RECO LEDs on it, I suspect they were re-used on the newer arm. The closer signal still retains a full set of older RECO incandescents though, which is rather nice to see.
However, I guess it's time to move onto the meat of the description, as all of y'all are probably still wondering, what's up with that right-hand signal?
Well, the short answer is that right behind my camera is a T intersection in which Lee Street terminates. Now, of course, that isn't quite good enough, as y'all probably know there's many ways to provide lights aimed at the intersecting road. For example, you could install a gateless mast on this side and have it hold up the side lights for the crossing. Or you could install two pairs of side lights on the signal. Or even just install one pair of front lights, and aim them towards just one of the directions, like NS sometimes does. Or hell, you could even do what CSX liked to do in the 90s and point the front lights such that one light faced each direction on the intersecting road. Or even do any combinations of the above to get the desired results. However, it appears that the SBD was just too good for that and left off any kind of front/side lights from the signal.
However, upon closer inspection of the right-hand signal, it begins to looks suspiciously like the gate mast on the far side. In fact, it appears that the right-hand signal was actually meant to be a gate mast for a cantilever as well! Of course, said cantilever on this side appears to be suspiciously MIA from the crossing, and as it's been at least 30+ years since these signals were installed, any evidence of a cantilever, or at least, an extra mast signal, being planned for this side appears to be long gone. Maybe they had also installed it with the plans to add front lights later, but never got around to it? Possibly, but unless someone at least knows someone who put these signals up, then we'll never truly know for sure.
Of course, it's also entirely possible that it was intended to be this way from the start. By the 80s, the Dothan Sub would've been a pretty minor line for the Seaboard, it appears, likely not seeing many more trains than it currently does. Also the town itself appears to have been steadily losing population since it was incorporated in 1968, so maybe they figured that the low train count, combined with the dying town, meant the right-hand signal didn't really need front lights.
How this seemingly-incomplete install managed to never get dinged by the FRA, even across, assumedly, multiple inspections, for something as minor as lacking some front lights, however? Well, that, I truly have no clue, given how strict the inspectors can be, even when it comes to things like how the gate lights flash.
Of course, with the Dothan Sub receiving upgrades to the crossings (at least for the 8 inch ones), in addition to being brought back up to 40 MPH, it's possible that CSX could install front lights on the closer signal, or even replace it entirely, to improve the safety here. And if that does happen, then I'll be quite glad that I got this crossing recorded when I did, as this is a very unique install, all in all.

Napier Field itself has a bit of an interesting history. The town was originally built as a US Army Air Force base during WWII, but decommissioned once the war had ended in 1945, with it being turned over to the county and the city of Dothan. In the following years, the former base was sold off bit by bit and slowly became a town. In 1965, Dothan had their part of the former base rebuilt and upgraded, becoming the Dothan Regional Airport. A few years after this, the town of Napier Field was officially incorporated in 1968, with a population of 572 in the 1970 census. However, the town has slowly dried up as the years have gone on, and as of the 2018 census estimate, the town only has about 340 people living there still.