Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-19-21*

Northbound signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, a RECO LED gate light, and RECO gate lights.
Southbound signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a dead General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

After catching the second NS local freight, I went over to Irondale to see about recording NS's crossing on 20th Street there. When I got there, I saw an eastbound mixed freight waiting to go past the yard with an SD70ACu leading an ES40DC and a pair of Dash-9s. After a little while of waiting though, a second NS mixed freight with an AC44C6M leading a Dash-9 and an SD70ACC pulled out of the yard, and waited a while, before shoving back into the yard, where they eventually disconnected the power and ran it over to the shops. I'm guessing they were dropping off their train at Norris Yard.
While that second train was hanging out from the yard, however, the first train I saw here departed heading east, so I was definitely on the wrong side for that meet, lol.
After catching the two mixed freights here, it looked like NS 329 might've been about to leave the yard, so I decided to set-up on the opposite side of the crossing. However, while waiting, a yard job came up to the south end of the yard, close enough to cause the signals to time-out. While they were hanging out there though, the KCS/KCSM ES44AC pair I'd caught earlier in the day also pulled-up on the same track. Eventually, the yard job moved back into the yard and the KCS engines followed them in soon after, running lite

This crossing certainly is a bit of an interesting one. It appears that NS originally put these signals up in the mid-90s, though, a bit unusually, with 12x24 inch lights, it appears. At the time, it appears this may have been a double-crossing, as the third track from the camera (connecting the two the two trains in the first video were on, allowing trains on the closer main in that video to bypass the yard more easily) didn't exist until the late-2000s. In the late-2000s, the tracks leading up to the yard & bypass were re-done, causing the previous connector (which allowed trains on the farther track in the first video to enter the yard) to be removed, and a new one to be installed through this crossing. As such, it appears that the middle two signals that were (most likely) here at the time to be removed, though one would later get re-used at the signalized crossing in Graysville, AL. The two remaining signals however remained unchanged until sometime between 2008 and 2013, when the Safetran mechanical bell on the northbound signal was replaced with a GS Type 2 e-bell. The Safetran bell on the southbound signal was still around, though by 2013, it was already on its way out as it barely rang at all in the video I've seen taken here in Irondale back then, and by 2015, it'd already been replaced with another GS Type 2. The signals then remained unchanged for a few more years, until 2019 or before, when the bell on the southbound signal died once again, as discovered by Gametrain. Then, sometime between 2019 and 2021, the bell on the southbound signal also seems to have died, but then got replaced with the current GS Type 3, but not the dead bell on the southbound signal, for some reason.
Either way, this is still a pretty nice little crossing, and it also seems to be quite a popular spot for local railfans as well, as it's quite busy, especially due to it being located at the south end of the NS Norris Yard. In fact, Irondale's put-up a railfan platform next to this crossing, to let people be able to railfan in the shade here.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Irondale/20_2/