Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 12-29-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs and a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs and a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell.

After catching the BNSF intermodal train, Norfolk Southern NA Memphis District Railfan and I hung-out together at 26th Street to wait on NS 320 there. However, while we were waiting, we started hearing a distant train horn on the BNSF Birmingham Sub, and, not long after, the signals at the diamond lit-up, so we ran on over to this crossing to catch what was coming. The train turned-out to be a loaded coal train heading for Plant Miller near West Jefferson, with an SD70ACe leading a Dash-9 and an ES44AC on the head-end and another pair of SD70ACes sandwiching another ES44AC on the rear! Certainly quite a nice catch, especially for an unexpected one!

This crossing is also a pretty decent one. The signals here were installed sometime after 2015, replacing an older pair of gateless BN Safetran signals from the 90s. The BN signals themselves also seem to have replaced an even older pair of Frisco signals, but I don't know what those signals would've originally had. Either way, it's always kinda interesting to see modern gateless BNSF signals, and there's actually a few pairs of 'em on the Birmingham Sub, for whatever reason (all replacing older gateless signals, of course).
Just to the left of the crossing is one of the signals guarding the diamond with the NS NA District, which can also be seen to the left of the crossing.

*originally recorded on 11-13-23*

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 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On November 13th, I went down to visit with my friends in the Jasper area and pick-up some stuff to carry to Ponyville Ciderfest this weekend. While down there, I was hanging-out with Zac and we were able to catch this loaded coal train going through Jasper which had a pair of BNSF's brand-new ET44ACHes on the head-end, and a pair of SD70ACes working as the train's DPUs. Definitely wasn't expecting to see a pair of very fresh brand new locomotives leading this train, but it was definitely a bit of a nice surprise.
While down here, Zac and I bumped into another local railfan, who's primarily interested in modelling railroads, but is also quite the local railroad historian, and we certainly had a very fun time chatting with him.

As you can see, since I was last here, BNSF has decided to install gates here. Likely owing to the fact that the gateless signals were installed here in the latter-half of the 2010s, BNSF just left the signals in place, but added new Siemens gate mechs and gate arms (with RECO LED gate lights) to them. It ain't too common to see gateless signals get upgraded to gated ones without replacing them, and I think this is the first one I've managed to film the before and after of. Either way, it's definitely a bit of an interesting upgrade, and I'm glad I was able to film it.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/J ... rmingham1/

No changes here as of 2-28-26: