Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 10-6-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights and a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light.

On October 6th, I met-up with my friend EquusStorm in Jasper before heading down towards the NS East End District for some more crossings. On our way down, we saw 74G was sitting in downtown Birmingham, but we decided to ultimately pay it little mind. However, while we were waiting for Amtrak 19, we started hearing it getting closer and closer, so we grabbed our cameras from the crossing we were at and raced on over to this one on the P Line to shoot it. Thankfully, we were able to beat it here with a few minutes to spare. Here we see our first train of the day: NS 74G with a pair of AC44C6Ms pulling on the head-end, and another AC44C6M working as the train's DPU.

This crossing is a rather nice one, featuring another pair of old, though modernized, gateless CofG signals at it still, which I believe date back to the 50s. At some point, it appears the original (US&S Teardrop?) bell here may have been replaced with a (reused?) WRRS/WCH mechanical bell, assuming said WRRS (if it was one) wasn't original, of course. Either way, in the 1980s, it appears that NS replaced the lights on the far signal with the current Safetran 12x24s. The crossing remained largely unchanged for a while after, though, sometime between 2008 and 2013, a couple more changes would occur here. In this time frame, the far signal would have the mechanical bell that had been here replaced with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. At about the same time, it appears, NS replaced the crossbuck on that signal with a newer one that sadly isn't split. The signals here remained largely unchanged for a bit after. However, sometime between 2014 and 2020, NS replaced the remaining US&S 8 inch lights on the closer signal with the current set of Safetran 12 inch lights, with the 12x20s all being new heads and the 12x24 being a reused head from the early to mid-90s, it appears. Admittedly, I ain't sure if the closer signal here got all 12x20s initially and the 12x24 was a replacement, or if the 12x24 was installed at the same time as the rest of the 12 inch lights on that signal.
Either way, thankfully, despite these upgrades, these classic gateless CofG signals have remained in service, which is nice to see. Easily my favorite thing about this crossing, however, is easily the fact that the closer signal has managed to retain its split crossbuck! Definitely nice to get another split crossbuck on a signal like this filmed, especially since they're a fairly rare sight these days. Hopefully these signals remain unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I was able to film them when I did.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/G-Q/Leeds/Dunnavant/