Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 9-23-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, a RECO gate light, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

After I recorded the CSX defect detector, I made my way on down to this crossing in Wildwood, on the NS AGS North District, as I had been wanting to record it for some time. I got out here and got set-up, and, after about an hour of waiting, I got word that I had an NS 16T coming, which had just met an NS 109 at the siding north of Attalla, AL, and I guesstimated it'd come through right about or a bit before sunset. Sure enough, after another hour and a half later, I was able to catch the New England DD reading-out (video here), and, shortly thereafter, NS 16T came through right at about sunset with a UP AC44CW, in the new paint scheme, leading an NS AC44C6M on the head-end, and NS 4002 (another AC44C6M) working as the mid-train DPU! This was definitely a nice surprise, as I didn't know NS 4002 was on NS 16T on this day, and it was certainly a great train to end the day off on.

This crossing is a rather nice one, and was certainly a great one to end off the day with. It a late-SOU/early-NS MI install from the early-80s that is still largely unchanged. It appears that in the late-90s or 2000s, NS replaced the original Safetran gate mechanism on the far side with the current one, but reused the MI counterweight arms onto the newer one. Then, sometime between 2007 and 2014, the original WCH mechanical bell here was replaced with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. Thankfully, since then, the only changes to the crossing have been the restriping of the gate arms and the replacement of a couple of gate lights with NEG LEDs. No other major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing since then. Hopefully these older signals remain unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record these when I did.
Admittedly, this isn't the only crossing on the AGS North with MI lights, one of the signals at Church Street in Trenton, GA, also features a set, but it is the only crossing on the AGS North with all MI lights. I may see if I can't spend a day on the AGS North at some point and see about getting that crossing in Trenton shot.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/R-Z/Wildwood/Creek/