Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-25-21*

Signal on the left: 1 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, 1 pair of WCH 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a WABCO AL-70 gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, a WABCO AL-70 gate mechanism, and Progress Rail(?) gate lights.

After catching the Deepstep turn on its way north, we went over to this crossing to wait for its southbound return trip. We'd heard it'd take them anywhere from 1 to 4 hours for them to work the various industries to the northwest of Sandersville, though they wound-up taking 4 hours to work them this time around (during which we heard another one of the SAN's trains returning to the yard). However, they did eventually come back through and we were able to film this rather nice crossing.

To be honest, this crossing easily has to be one of my favorites from the trip, if not my absolute favorite from this trip. The signals here are a classic pair of gated WABCO signals that I can only assume were installed back in the 70s (if not before), though obviously the lights and bell aren't original. I know previously this crossing had a mechanical bell (which appears to have been either WCH or FS), though that was later replaced with a Safetran Type 2 e-bell which has obviously since died and been replaced with the current GS Type 3. The lights were likely originally upgraded in the 80s, before the far signal had its front pair of lights replaced later on with a pair of WCH 12x20s.
Thankfully though, the WABCO AL-70 pair here have been thankfully retained, for which I'm quite grateful as I'm pretty sure these are the only (remaining) pair of WABCO AL-70s in the southeast! These seem to have gotten more use out west (where even then they're somewhat rare to find in use these days), though Conrail seems to have used them a little bit in the northeast and midwest (almost all of which have long since been replaced though). These have also been nicknamed the "triangle gate mechs", due to their unique triangular-ish counterweight arms.
Another cool thing about these is the fact that the far signal also still retains its original(?) fiberglass hexagonal gate arm. These are quite rare to find, especially since it appears that they were primarily used on WABCO installs, and have a neat hexagonal shape to them rather than the standard rectangular shape like the closer one.
Either way, I'm glad to have finally been able to record a pair of these in action, and hopefully they remain in service for many more years to come.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/Sandersville/Linton/