Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 3-14-25*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Dotted LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with GE Dotted LEDs, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching 26A, I snagged myself some lunch and made my way over to this crossing to wait and see if anything else was coming. After a bit of waiting, a friend of mine gave me a heads-up about a westbound leaving Atlanta, so I continued to wait here. After a little while of waiting, I was able to catch my fifth train of the day: NS 29A with a UP SD70ACe leading a UP AC45CCTE, a UP ES44AH, and a UP AC45CCTE for power.

This crossing is another neat one, with another unusual install. The signals here were were originally another mid-70s (or so) SOU install, with both cantilevers here originally lacking mast lights. Not sure if the overhead lights were 12x20s and/or 12x24s originally, as older street view imagery here shows one pair with 12x20s and the other with 12x24s, but, either way, in the 2000s (it appears), NS replaced the bell here with a General Signals e-bell. At about the same time, the front overhead lights on both signals were replaced with the current Safetran 12x20s, though they were incandescent at the time. Then, sometime between 2008 and 2012, NS replaced the bell here with the current Safetran Type 3 e-bell. Next, sometime around 2015 or 2016, the gate masts here were replaced with the current ones and the lights were upgraded to GE Uniform Look LED. At about the same time, the remaining pairs of overhead lights here were also replaced by the current Safetran 12x20s. Then, strangely, in 2019, NS replaced all of the LEDs here with the current GE Dotted LEDs for some reason. No idea why this happened here either, as it just seems like a waste of money. Either way, thankfully nothing else here seems to have changed since then.
Like with Burnt Hickory Road, the cantilevers here lacked mast lights originally. However, when the gate masts were replaced in the mid-2010s, NS decided to add mast lights here. Like with Burnt Hickory Road, however, NS didn't run wiring to the cantilevers to install the front pairs on the cantilever masts, instead choosing to install the front mast lights on the gate masts. It definitely still looks rather weird, especially since the front lights have to be mounted a bit wider to be visible around the cantilever mast. Definitely glad I was able to get this crossing recorded as well though.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/R-Z/Winston/Mann/