Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 3-27-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG 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.

On March 27th, I went back down to the Birmingham Metro area with the intent of chasing A84 some more, but when I got down there, I couldn't find them. Went all the way to Childersburg without seeing them, in fact. As such, I decided to head out to the NS East End District instead and work on documenting that line. Funnily enough, as I went out to the East End District, I heard NS A84 getting a track warrant to head east. Turns out they were only going as far as Childersburg anyways, so it wasn't a big loss.
After I got out to the East End, I decided to set-up here and wait for a train. After waiting for about and hour, and hearing what kinda sounded like a couple of westbounds approaching (NS 23D and Amtrak 19), I heard a train horn in the distance. After a few more minutes of waiting, the first train of the day came through with an AC44C6M leading a pair of Dash-9s and another Dash-9 and AC44C6M working as a pair of mid-train DPUs! Not entirely sure what ID this train was, but I strongly suspect it was NS 186.

This crossing is a pretty nice one. It appears that the signals here were originally installed in the 1970s by the Southern Railway. Then, in the late-1990s, the far signal was replaced entirely while the closer signal had its lights upgraded to the current Safetran 12x20s at the same time. However, it sounds like the mechanical bell has remained original, along with the gate mechanism on the closer signal.
Eastaboga's also a bit of an interesting town, IMHO, as directly south of the town you have another community with the name of Old Eastaboga. Apparently, this town was originally incorporated under the name of McFall in the late 1800s, but was unincorporated after a few years under the same name in the early 1900s. However, sometime since then, the communities got renamed to what they are now, for some reason. Not entirely sure why this happened, but this is Alabama, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

*originally recorded on 10-19-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching 28J in Tallapoosa, GA, we went back west into Alabama and made our way over to the community of Eastaboga for the next crossing we were going to visit. After a bit of waiting here, we were able to get our second train of the day: NS 394 with a lone ET44AC pulling it for power.

Sadly, sometime after I last filmed this crossing back in 2020, NS replaced the original Safetran mechanical bell here with the current GS Type 3 e-bell. Definitely a shame to see it go, but I'm glad I got it filmed a few years back regardless. The gate lights here were also given an LED upgrade, and are now all NEG LEDs as a result.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/E ... _Hatchery/