Boy Scout Road, Hixson, TN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-22-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching 345 in Dayton, I decided to hop back on US 27 and chase it back south to this crossing in Hixson. Thankfully, I was able to beat it here with a good few minutes to spare, and here we get to see NS 345 once again on this day.

This crossing is a pretty neat one, featuring a cantilever on the east side of the crossing that's mounted at a pretty sharp angle due to the tracks crossing the road here at a pretty sharp angle. It appears that, originally, there were some gateless signals installed here in the early-80s by the late-SOU, including at least the cantilever on this side. All of the lights on the cantilever were originally 12x24s, save for the front-left overhead light which had been a 12x20 since it was installed it seems. In the mid-2000s or so, certainly prior to street view first coming through here in 2007, NS upgraded this crossing to gates, replacing the signal on the far side entirely with the current gated mast signal and installing the gate mast in front of the cantilever on the near side of the crossing. At about the same time, the bell here was replaced with the current Safetran Type 3 e-bell. The crossing remained unchanged for roughly a decade after, but, then, sometime between 2014 and 2016, NS upgraded this crossing to LED. Since then, thankfully, outside of the replacement of the gate lights on the far signal in recent years, nothing else too major appears to have changed to this crossing. I'm glad to see the sharp-angled cantilever here still remains, as I honestly think it looks rather neat. It ain't common to find a cantilever mounted at an angle like this, so I'm glad to have been able to get this one filmed.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/G-Q ... Boy_Scout/