Pinson Road, West End-Cobb Town, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-8-25*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

While documenting the upgrade at Willingham Drive, I saw that NS was lining an eastbound through West End-Cobb Town, so we hopped over to this crossing to wait for it. After a little while of waiting, I was able to get my second, and best, catch of the day: NS 394 with a Dash-9 leading an ES44DC for power!

This crossing is another great one, and I'm glad I got to record it. It appears that, like with the signals over at Old Choccolocco Road #1 in Choccolocco, this crossing features another install from the mid to late-90s when the NS Alabama Division was in the process of changing from Safetran mechanical bells to GS Type 1 e-bells for new installs, as street view from 2008 shows the far signal here also originally had a Safetran mechanical bell. Interestingly, 2008 street view imagery also shows that one of the side lights on the far signal also had a 24 inch background on it at the time as well, no idea if that was original or if it was a replacement for a 20 inch one. Either way, sometime between 2008 and 2014, NS replaced the Safetran mechanical bell here with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. At about the same time, the lone 24 inch background here was also replaced with a 20 inch one. The crossing remained basically unchanged until sometime between 2022 and 2025, when NS replaced both gate arms and all of the gate lights here with the current ones (which I didn't notice when I was here, admittedly).
Thankfully, the closer signal here still retains a GS Type 1 e-bell, which is great to see. Always nice finding another GS Type 1 still in use, I think this makes at least five GS Type 1 e-bells left on the NS East End District, off the top of my head anyways. It's also quite nice to see that the bells here are also still set to ring when the gates rise. Hopefully this crossing remains largely unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I got to record this crossing when I did.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/R-Z/ ... wn/Pinson/