Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-30-21*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

After catching CSX Q198, Ethan and I grabbed lunch in Atlanta and then continued on our way back to Alabama to get the remaining crossings on the NS East End District documented. On our way through Tallapoosa though, Ethan saw that the signal for eastbounds was green, so we pulled over here and set-up. After a little while of waiting, we heard an approaching train, and eventually this eastbound mixed freight came rolling through with an ET44AC leading an AC44C6M on the head-end and an ES44DC and an SD70ACe working as the mid-train DPUs.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, especially for the NS East End District. It features a pair of signals that were installed by NS back in the 1980s, and are still largely original. In fact, the crossing was entirely original until about 2015/2016, it appears (though it could've been as early as 2014), when the signals here were upgraded to LED, along with the rest of the crossings along the line in Georgia. Then, sometime around 2016/2017 (but after street view had come through here in 2016), both of the original Safetran gate mechanisms here were replaced with the current Siemens ones. Since then thankfully, no major changes have occured here.
This crossing also retains one of the last three crossings along the NS East End District in Georgia with a mechanical bell as well, so I'm glad to see it's still working. Hopefully no further changes occur to these signals for a good while yet, but either way, I'm glad to have been able to record it. Both signals also have some old crossbuck pieces hanging down from the arms for the side lights, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe they were meant for arrows or something? The rear lights on the closer signal are also spread rather far apart, due to how the signal is positioned.

*originally recorded on 10-19-24*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

On October 19th, I got-up bright and early, picked-up a friend, and we made our way down to the NS East End District for a long day of railfanning. Our first stop took us across the state line into Tallapoosa, GA, where we saw a train was already lined through. We got to this crossing and, just a few minutes after I got set-up, our first train of the day came through: NS 28J with a UP AC45CCTE leading a UP AC44CW, a UP AC44CWCTE, and an NS ES44AC for power. A nearby defect detector can also be heard reading-out as the train approaches.

Sadly, sometime after I last recorded this crossing back in 2021, NS replaced the original Safetran mechanical bell here with the current GS Type 3 e-bell. It appears that this upgrade occurred sometime between October of last year and March of this year, per street view imagery. Thankfully, the only other change that appears to have occurred here was the replacement of the tip gate light on the closer signal with another NEG LED gate light. Nothing else appears to have changed to these late-SOU signals from the 80s, however.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/R-Z/T ... sa/Lipham/