Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 9-20-19*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Harmon 12x20 inch lights, 1 pair of WCH 12x20 inch lights, a WCH gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light, and two RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2.5 pairs of Harmon 12x20 inch lights, 1 Safetran 12x20 inch light, 1 pair of WCH 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After I got the crossing in Adamsville, I was planning to let the military train go, since I decided I wanted to head on back up to the Guin/Winfield area to document a few changes around there. However, since I was down in this area, I decided to head to Docena and document the crossing there before heading back north. However, when I was heading to Docen, I saw the military train stopped just north of the crossing! I was then able to set-up and record the train creeping into the siding here, to meet a northbound intermodal train with a trio of ES44C4s for power!
Both trains wound-up stopping on the crossing, so I shut-off my camera when that happened, since it was starting to run low on battery. However, it was probably only for 30 seconds to a minute at most, so I probably didn't need to do that.

The crossing here is a very nice one, featuring a pair of gate BN cantilevers from the 1980s that are still mostly original! In fact, the only major changes here is that one of the overhead lights and the original WCH mechanical bell were both replaced at some point. Interestingly enough, this also means that this is sadly the least crossing along the BNSF Birmingham Sub to retain its original WCH gate mechs, as all of the others that ad them either have new gate mechs or had the original signals replaced entirely.
Not sure why the gate masts here have yet to have any upgrades, but if I had to suspect, it's due to the crossing featuring a pair of cantilever signals as well. Either way, I'm quite glad to have been able to record this crossing before the gate mechs here are eventually replaced.
The crossing also features an NEG LED gate light on the far signal, which seems to be quite unusual for the BNSF, as typically they're a huge user of RECO LED gate lights. This wasn't the only NEG LED gate light that I saw either, as you'll see in the next video.