Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 11-13-20*

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

After catching H-MEMBIR in Cordova, a slow order (it appears) made it have to travel slowly through the siding between Cordova and Dora, so I was able to easily beat it to this crossing. This crossing's another pretty decent (and slightly unusual) one, though it sadly ain't as interesting as it once was. Originally, the crossing was a pair of WABCO signals from the Frisco, and were pretty much entirely original up until 2014 (aside from one of the lights and the bell on the far signal being replaced at some point), though the far signal did get moved closer to the tracks between 2008 and 2014.
Sadly, by the time I got out here in 2015, BNSF had replaced the signals here entirely with the current signals. However, rather unusually for BNSF, they chose to install these new signals with a full set of (reused?) incandescent Safetran 12x20 inch lights! Certainly not something you see BNSF doo all that often, especially since they usually install new LEDs when replacing the signals at a crossing.
Also, rather unusually for BNSF, the closer signal still retains a pair of incandescent gate lights! The tip gate light is LED (of course), but it's certainly nice seeing a mostly incandescent gated signal on a BNSF line like this, and it's especially nice seeing the incandescent gate lights here!

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Dora/Doliska2/

*originally recorded on 3-21-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a dead/non-functional General Signals (Type 3?) electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, a RECO LED gate light, and RECO gate lights.

After catching the grain train here in Dora, I followed it down to Adamsville, where I watched it meet this northbound H-BIRMEM at the siding there. Although I didn't film either train there, I did choose to chase the H-BIRMEM back up to this crossing to begin my proper chase of it back north along the line. Here we see it pass through with an H2 Dash-9 leading a trio of H3 ES44ACs! Certainly nice to get another H2 leader on this day.

As you can see, this crossing has also had some changes done to it sometime recently. It appears that the far signal was re-installed onto a new foundation, and had its lights upgraded to Safetran 12x24 inch LEDs, for some reason. It appears that BNSF also plans to do the same with the closer signal, as there's what appears to be a new foundation located next to it, but for whatever reason, BNSF hasn't done the move to the signal yet. Despite this, they've also installed a new bell on top of it, though said bell isn't functional, at least yet. Given the fact that the crossing now has a new relay case at it (seen on the far side), I wouldn't be surprised if BNSF plans on hooking it up when the new relay case is put into use. Interestingly enough, both the old & new cases here are hooked-up to power and have the lights on indicating that, though I believe the older case is still controlling the crossing.
Thankfully, the closer signal is still otherwise largely unchanged for the moment, and still retains all of its incandescent lights, including the incandescent gate lights! Wouldn't be surprised if these get upgraded when the signal gets reinstalled though, sadly, but I'm just glad to have another video of them. The front-left light's background has also been noticeably chipped as well.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Dora/Doliska2/

*originally recorded on 5-16-21*

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

Two days ago, I went back down to the BNSF Birmingham Sub to document some upgrades that I'd known had occurred since I last went railfanning on the line. I decided to start out in Dora, since I knew this crossing was upgraded, and I wanted to see it. Unfortunately, after missing what seems to have been a northbound (heard it set-off the defect detector north of this crossing as I was still approaching), I had to wait a while for my first train of the day. However, after that while of waiting, I heard this southbound approaching, and eventually, this southbound coal train came through with an H2 AC44CW leading an H3 ES44AC on the head-end, with a pair of H3 ES44ACs and an H3 SD70ACe working as the rear DPUs! The AC44 leader on this train was also one I'd seen before leading an empty coal train in Madison, AL, back in 2015, though the paint on its rather recognizable blank nose looked much better back then. Honestly kinda surprised to see it's still lacking any kind of nose logo after all of these years, but considering the fact it's been like this since 2008/2009 and still hasn't been repainted, I wouldn't be too surprised if it remains untouched for a while longer.

As you can see, since I last recorded this crossing, BNSF has finally remounted the far signal and finished the upgrade here. As expected, the far signal was also given a full LED upgrade, and the bell on it has been activated and now works. Unfortunately, this now also means that all of the incandescent gate lights along the Birmingham Sub (that I'm aware of) are now gone. Interestingly enough, though, the gate lights on the far signal are now all bunched up towards the tip of the gate arm, due to how far back the signal stands from the road now.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Dora/Doliska2/