Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-19-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

After catching the intermodal train, Ethan and I continued documenting the crossings on the East End District until the rain from a tropical storm basically forced us to stop. However, as Amtrak 19 was on the move and was steadily getting closer, we decided to stop in Heflin and set-up since the rain wasn't too bad yet. Either way, after checking on the three crossings in Heflin, we decided to go with this one, where we caught Amtrak 19 on their way west/south with a typical pair of P42DCs for power.

This crossing is a rather nice one, and easily my favorite that we recorded on this day. The signals here are a nice old pair of Safetran signals installed by the Southern Railway back in the 1970s, and are still largely original. It appears that in the 2000s, NS upgraded all of the lights here to the current ones, but thankfully no more major changes have occured to this crossing since then. The Safetran mechanical bell here also sounds quite nice still, so hopefully it'll be around for a good while longer.
Another neat little thing about this crossing is the fact that it's located right next to a T intersection, so as such, the far signal lacks any front lights (but does have two pairs of side lights). Either way, this was a great crossing, and I'm glad I was able to end-off with it.

*originally recorded on 9-28-24*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After 346 passed, I knew there was another eastbound train coming, so I decided to head over to this crossing to get it. After a bit of waiting, I was able to get my third train of the day: NS 156 with an AC44C6M pulling on the head-end and another AC44C6M working as the train's DPU.

Since my last video of this crossing back in 2021, it appears the only change that's occurred to this crossing was that NS replaced both gate arms here, and upgraded all of the gate lights to RECO LEDs as a result. Thankfully, nothing else here has changed, and the old late-70s SOU signals here continue to live on, with their original gate mechs and mechanical bell! Definitely glad to see the old Safetran mechanical bell is still here.
I also decided to take the opportunity and film this crossing on the bell-less side, as I always think signals like this without any front lights on them look rather neat.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/H ... ardsville/