Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-9-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On June 9th, I went out to the Memphis, TN, area to meet-up with TommyBNSF and Bigmindcreator TS (Elliot), though, along the way, I decided to stop and railfan along the NS Memphis District West End in Tennessee some, recording some older installs along the line. This was the first train I caught: NS 16A with an ES44AC leading an SD70ACe.

This crossing's a pretty nice one, featuring a nice old 70s SOU install that's still largely original. Only major change is that at some point the bell here was replaced with the current Safetran Type 3, my guess being sometime in the late-2000s or very early 2010s. Not sure if this replaced the original bell, or a newer one, but I guess it doesn't really matter that much in the long run, lol. Since then, though, no major changes have occured here. It's certainly quite nice to see these classic SOU signals are still hanging on, especially with their full set of 8 inch lights.
Apparently, according to a signal maintainer I got to chat with later, the gate on the far side is only about 20 inches above the road. However, the gate mechs can't be raised up any higher due to the fact that the foundations here are worn out, so it means that the signals here need to be replaced, unfortunately. Either way though, I suppose it's a good thing that I got to record this crossing when I did.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/R-Z ... ings/Sain/

The only change here as of 4-19-25 is that the bell now rings when the gates rise:

*originally recorded on 3-18-26*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, a RECO gate light, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching 101 just west of Chewalla, vtgrxrman and I continued west to this crossing in Rogers Springs. Although 101 was rolling through already, we weren't too worried, admittedly, as we were planning to get 289 here anyways since we knew it wasn't running too far behind 101. After a bit of waiting, we were able to catch NS 289 here once again.

Since I recorded this crossing last spring, NS replaced two of the gate lights on the closer signal with a pair of NEG LED gate lights. Thankfully, nothing else has changed to this mid-1970s Southern Railway install since I last recorded it. I will admit I'm glad I was finally able to get this side of the crossing recorded as well.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/R- ... ings/Sain/