8th Street & Collier Avenue, Sylacauga, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 10-10-19*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Collier Avenue signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

After chasing the ATN, FanFan61618 and I went and got lunch, and decided to head onto Sylacauga to see about chasing the EARY. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Sylacauga, the EARY had already left town. However, as we didn't know where the EARY would be at, it appeared that there was a few NS trains in the area, and I had a crossing on the north side of Mignon I wanted to document, we chose to hang around Sylacauga and railfan.
After accidentally missing the Sylacauga local, the Searchlight signals at the siding here turned green for a northbound! As such, we quickly got set-up at this crossing, and after a while of waiting, NS 187 came rolling through with an SD70ACe leading a Dash-9 and an AC44C6M!

This crossing is a pretty neat one, and is one of my favorites in Sylacauga. The signals here were originally all 1990s NS signals, but sometime prior to 2014, the left-hand signal (which had a bit of an unusual set-up for the lights) had had one of the lights struck and replaced with a re-used Safetran 12x24 that appears to have been from the 80s. Then, sometime between 2015 and 2016, the left-hand signal was replaced entirely with a newer Siemens signal from NS, with a bit of a more usual light arrangement.
However, this crossing is still quite a nice one, being the last crossing to feature a mechanical bell on the NS P Line in the Sylacauga area, and one of just two mechanical bells left in the entire city of Sylacauga. The Safetran mechanical bell here still sounds quite healthy as well, outside of slowing down a bit once the gates have completely lowered, for some reason. Hopefully it remains here for many more years to come.
Interestingly enough, especially for an NS crossing, the bells here pretty much ring until the signals shut-off. However, based on how the bells pause when the crossing begins to deactivate, I think they're supposed to be shut-off when the gates are down. Likely the main reason this is because the gate arm on the far signal isn't counterweighted right, causing the gate mech to lower enough not to cause a major issue, but at the same time, not lower enough to have the bells shut off. I personally don't mind though, since it let me hear the Safetran mechanical bell here for longer.
In all honesty, this was probably my favorite crossing from the day trip I took with FanFan61618. Glad to have finally been able to record it.