Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 9-7-23*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with General Signals LEDs, 1 Safetran 12x20 inch light with a General Signals LED, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with General Signals LEDs, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light with a General Signals LED, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On September 7th, I went back out to Tupelo, MS, to shoot more crossings on the BNSF Birmingham Subdivision. This was the first train that I caught: a northbound local freight with the SD40-2 leading the B40-8W for power!

This crossing is a bit of a neat one, even if the equipment is fairly modern. Originally, there were a pair of gated cantilever signals here installed by the Frisco back in the 1970s, though, in the 1990s I believe, one of the mast lights on the far signal was replaced with a newer Safetran 12x20 inch light. Then, sometime between 2008 and 2013, the original Safetran mechanical bell here was replaced with a General Signals e-bell, most likely a Type 2.
Then, sometime in about 2016 it appears, BNSF removed the original cantilevers here and replaced their gate masts with the current gated mast signals. Since then, nothing too major appears to have changed here.
The signals here are a bit odd, and, thanks to their backgrounds, almost seem to have an appearance of being cobbled together from spare parts, not helped by the fact they're installed on the old gate mast foundations. Unusually for modern BNSF installs, the lights here feature General Signals LEDs, which they primarily used back in about the mid-2000s. The lights also have a strange mix of backgrounds on them as well: the far signal is all 24 inch save for a 20 inch background and the closer signal is all 20 inch save for a 24 inch background. No idea if they were installed like this, for some reason, or if some of the backgrounds here were replaced between 2016 and by the time street view got a close-up view of these signals in 2019 (though it seems they were installed this way, for some reason), but the weird mix certainly makes the signals look a bit awkward. Kinda surprised a maintainer ain't gone through yet and swapped the two odd backgrounds around.
The bell here also operates a bit strangely, as the bell doesn't start until the gates begin to lower. Due to this being on an old Frisco relay case still, the bell here rings until the signals shut-off as well, which reminds me of how the bell at 1st Avenue in Birmingham operates. All in all, this is still a bit of a neat crossing and I'm glad I got to record it.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Mississippi/R-Z/Tupelo/Green/