Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 9-20-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After I caught the two trains meeting in Docena, I chased the northbound intermodal back on up to Quinton. This crossing is the only crossing in the town of Quinton, and features what appears to be a pair of late-BN signals from the mid-90s. The signals are still mostly original, but it appears that in the late-90s, BNSF replaced the original Safetran mechanical bell here with the current GS Type 1, and then, more recently, replaced the gate mech on the far signal with a newer one. Like 5th Street in Docena, this crossing also features a some NEG LED gate lights, but a full set of them instead of just one.
This crossing is probably the largest one once I've ever recorded in terms of the number of tracks, featuring a total of 6 tracks! The farthest track from the camera is abandoned however, with the rails having been ripped from either side of the crossing, but the rails and grade for the crossing are still there.
The reason for such a large number of tracks is the fact that this is at the north end of a staging yard for coal trains heading into and out of the Alabama Power Miller Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant located on the other side of I-22/US 78 from this crossing. Alabama Power crews will take the trains in and out of the plant, but BNSF crews handle the trains elsewhere.
At the time of recording this, there were at least three trains in the yard, and at least one of them had a crew, but I never saw any of them heading north out of the yard on this trip.

No changes here as of 5-16-21:


http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Quinton/Quinton/

*originally recorded on 3-4-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching Q-ATGLAC in McCollum, I decided to head back over to Highland Avenue in Jasper to be able to watch the wayside signals at South Jasper, in case they lit-up for something being lined through them. Sure enough after a little while of waiting, they lit-up for another southbound, so I decided to hop over to Cordova to finally try and get Main Street recorded. Unfortunately, the southbound snuck-up on me while I was waiting there, so I grabbed my camera and chased it south to this crossing, since I knew I needed to rerecord it still. Thankfully, I was able to beat it here with plenty of time to spare, and here we get to see my third train of the day: a southbound loaded BNSF coal train slowly pulling into the staging yard at Quinton with a pair of ET44ACHs pulling on the head-end, and a pair of ES44ACHs working as the train's DPUs.

This crossing is another one that's changed quite a bit since I last shot it back in 2021. Unfortunately, sometime between 2022 and 2024, BNSF replaced both signals here with the current ones. As a result, this crossing no longer has its GS Type 1, which, IMHO, is a bit of a shame to see. Definitely glad I was able to record it a couple of times before replacement. Admittedly, I suspect this upgrade was slightly newer than the other more recent upgrades on the BNSF Birmingham Sub, as, while these are another pair of modern gated BNSF signals, both signals use NEG LED gate lights rather than RECO LED gate lights.
It appears that around the time of the crossing upgrade here, BNSF also ripped-out the long-abandoned sixth track that used to be here, meaning that this crossing now only has five tracks running across it. Still quite a large crossing though, definitely one of the largest I've ever filmed.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Quinton/Quinton/