Lawrence Street, Russellville, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-5-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

After catching 320 leaving Sheffield Yard, I chased it on down to this nice late-90s NS install in Russellville, as it has the oldest signals within the city (believe it or not), along with the only cantilever signal left in Russellville. Back before 2010, Russellville was full of older gated signals with Safetran mechanical bells, GRS Lex-C lights (including a mixture of 8 inch and 12x20 inch Lex-Cs), and even apparently GRS gate mechs, but sadly, NS apparently told the signal maintainer for this section of the line (at the time) to replace them all around 2010 or so, so yea... There also used to be an abandoned crossing on the southside of town along US 43 with a pair of cantilevers, but those were removed years ago as well. Admittedly, just outside of Russellville on the north side of town, there is a crossing with a mid-90s NS install, but the original Safetran mechanical bell there was replaced at some point with a General Signals e-bell that's most likely a Type 2. As I suspected this crossing may have at least one Type 1 left at it, I chose to go with this one instead.
However, this crossing does still remain largely original, which is quite nice to see, with the only major change here being the original GS Type 1 on the cantilever was replaced with a GS Type 2 at some point. The cantilever here seems to be a bit short for the road, as the overhead lights on the end of the arm don't even reach all the way to the right-hand lane! However, it does appear that the primary purpose for this cantilever is to provide visibility around a building, so I suppose it works well enough. The bells here also ring as the gates rise, which is always cool to see, IMHO.

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-28-26*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

After catching 320 departing from Sheffield Yard up in Muscle Shoals, I went on down to downtown Russellville for my next crossing. Decided to head for this one as I'd been wanting to get a better video of it for a while now. Here we see NS 320 once again at the second crossing I recorded it at.

It appears that sometime within the past few years, NS replaced the tip gate light on the closer signal with an NEG LED gate light. Thankfully, nothing else appears to have changed. It seems for whatever reason this crossing activated before the one just north of it. Still, I'm glad I was able to get a better video of this crossing, and not have a giant white pick-up blocking part of the closer signal. Believe it or not, this is one of only four crossings on the NS NA/West End District to have a cantilever signal at it.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/R-Z/ ... /Lawrence/