Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 8-30-22*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran EM gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Griswold EM gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On the morning of August 30th, I got on up in Butte, MT, and headed on out to shoot the remaining EM signals on the MRL's 2nd Subdivision. After a few hours of waiting (and watching the 2nd half of a coal train be dropped off with the coal train sitting in the siding next to this crossing), a local freight pulled-up before the crossing and stopped to wait for a signal (and for the workers on the line to clear out of the way), causing this crossing to time-out.
After a little bit of waiting, the maintenance workers working on the switch at the end of the siding here cleared out of the way, and the dispatcher set the old Northern Pacific-era Searchlights to my northwest to show a clear indication for the local freight. Said local quickly got moving after that, and here we see it pass through the crossing with a pair of GP35 sister-units for power.

This crossing is a rather nice one, featuring a pair of EM signals at it. It appears that there were originally a pair of Griswold EM signals here installed back in the 1950s or maybe early 60s by the Northern Pacific, but in the 1970s, the far one was replaced by the BN with the current Safetran EM signal. Then, in the late-80s (or maybe early-90s), the MRL replaced the lights on the closer signal with the current MI 12x20s. Finally, sometime in the 2000s, the bell here was replaced with the current GS Type 2 e-bell, with no major changes to the crossing since then, thankfully.
It appears that this crossing is the last one to feature a Griswold EM signal at it on the entire MRL, as all of the other surviving EMs I saw on this trip were RACO or Safetran EMs. Unfortunately, it likely won't have these classics for much longer, assuming they're even still around, as this crossing is due for upgrade as there was a bunch of new conduit that had been installed around the crossing. Either way, this was a very nice crossing, and I'm quite glad I was able to record it when I did. Especially since it still retained the full 70s BN install on the other side.