Jones Village Road, near Springville, AL
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 8:56 am
*originally recorded on 2-8-25*
Signal on the left: 2 pairs Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
After catching 108, agsnorthproductions and I went over to another nearby crossing to wait, but I soon realized that the sun wasn't gonna work for the angle I wanted to get when 179 finally came through. As such, I decided to split off and head for this crossing just to the northeast of Springville, since I figured the lighting would be better here. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't as good by the time it got down here, but, either way, after a little bit of waiting, I was able to get my third, and best, catch of the day: NS 179 with NS 1800 (an SD70ACC) pulling on the head-end and NS 8099 (the Southern Railway heritage unit, an ES44AC) working as the train's DPU! Definitely a great catch, and I'm glad I was able to made it down to the AGS North for it.
This crossing is another pretty nice one, featuring another early-2000s NS install that's basically still entirely original. Both signals even still feature their original diagonally-striped gate arms. At some point within the past few years, however, NS restriped the front side of the closer signal's gate arm, though only the front half strangely enough. The rear of that gate arm is still diagonally-striped, along with the other signal's gate arm entirely. Not sure why this crossing didn't get fully restriped. Also of note here is that this crossing has the bells set to ring when the gates rise as well, which is always nice to see. Due to the road this crossing's on being a dead end, it's also fairly quiet, aside from the fact that you can hear a near-constant roar of traffic from I-59, due to the interstate being about half a mile away. The gate mech on the closer signal here also doesn't sound too happy either.
http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/R-Z/S ... s_Village/