Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 12-27-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.

After catching the ATN in Boaz, I continued on down to this crossing. After about an hour of waiting, they rolled on through on their journey towards Gadsden.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, featuring some CSX equipment from the mid to late 90s. It appears that originally, there was some L&N signals here (and maybe some old NC&StL signals before those), but in the 90s, the equipment was largely upgraded by CSX. The far signal appears to have been installed in the mid-90s, likely as a knock-down replacement. Meanwhile, the closer signal appears to have been entirely replaced in the late-90s (though one of the lights is from the mid-90s, so the other signal could be later than it appears), but the base from the old L&N signal was re-used on the new one, for some reason. However, the crossing is still quite a nice gateless install with incandescent lights, and, to make things even better, still retains a very nice-sounding General Signals Type 1 e-bell!

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Attalla/US278/

Got a video of the other side on 3-26-21, with no major changes to report as of then:

*originally recorded on 11-15-24*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light with an Electro-tech LED, and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs.

After I caught Y102 in Boaz, I continued on south to this crossing to get it in action as well. After about an hour of waiting, I unfortunately heard them stop to my north and tie down the train. However, after waiting a bit longer, I heard they were still going to try and get the power on back into Gadsden, so I was definitely glad I stuck around to wait. Soon after, I was able to get my eighth crossing of the day as ATN Y102 rolled across US 278, running lite.
Also, that one driver who laid on their horn because the person at the front of their small line didn't want to run the crossing is just frankly ridiculous.

Sometime between my last video of this crossing back in 2021 and April of this year, the ATN upgraded this crossing to LED. No idea if the Electro-tech LED here was part of the initial upgrade or not, given that the rest of the LEDs here are WCH 2nd Gens. Thankfully, the crossing is still gateless and even still retains its GS Type 1 e-bell! I'm especially glad to see that the GS Type 1 is still here, given that it's now the last GS Type 1 on the entire Guntersville Branch, as well as being the only GS Type 1 north of Gadsden Yard. With this video, however, I have finally gotten all of the crossings on the ATN's Guntersville Branch recorded and up to date!

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Attalla/US278/