Old Gordon Road, Dry Branch, GA

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-21-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a dead Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Harmon 8 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On June 21st, Ethan and I got on up and out to this crossing here in Dry Branch to try and catch L781 going through it. However, although the crew'd gotten on duty at their normal time, they had to wait for the line to be inspected before they could get moving, due to the tropical storm that'd come through the weekend prior. However, after a few hours of waiting, the line was clear so they got going. Unfortunately, while we'd hoped to catch the Dash-8 trio the GC had up in Macon at the time, the yard job needed that power on this day so L781 got the GP38-2 trio instead. However, it wasn't all bad, as at least the leader had an RS3L on him.

On the other hand, this crossing is a pretty nice one, having originally been a Safetran install done by the SCL in the late-70s. At some point, one of the rear lights on the closer signal got replaced by a WCH 8 inch light, though I will admit it's possible that WCH 8 inch light had originally been installed on that signal by the SCL themselves, though it's possible the SBD had replaced it as well.
Then, in the 2000s (and certainly sometime prior to 2009), the Safetran mechanical bell on the closer must've died, so the GC replaced it with the current GS Type 2. The crossing then remained almost completely unchanged for the next decade or so, until sometime within the past year when the closer signal had its lights replaced with a full set of Harmon 8 inch lights! Not entirely sure why the GC chose to do this, but I wouldn't be too surprised to find-out the old ones had been damaged. No idea where these guys came from either, as the rest of the GC's Harmon 8 inch lights were all still accounted for. Unfortunately, as you can see, the Safetran bell here died at some point as well, I'm guessing rather recently. Bit of a shame, but at least this crossing's still rather nice overall.
While I would've preferred recording the far side, as the lights on that "pure" SCL signal are rather nicely aged, this side wasn't too bad either. Harmon 8 inch lights ain't that common to find, and the ones facing us had some cool lenses in them. All in all, this is still a nice crossing and I'm glad to have finally gotten to record it.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/Dry_B ... ld_Gordon/