Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 10-1-25*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and 4 pairs of Harmon 12x20 inch lights.

On October 1st, I was on my way to Memphis to catch their weekly siren test (having caught Jefferson County's monthly test in the morning), when I got word that Memphis wasn't testing on this day. As such, I decided to hop off of I-22 and go over to this crossing in Holly Springs to see if I could get anything on the BNSF Birmingham Subdivision. After a long while of waiting, I was eventually able to get my first train of the day: a northbound BNSF mixed freight (H-BIRMEM?) with an ES44DC leading an ET44C4 on the head-end and a Dash-9 pushing on the rear.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, featuring a pair of older gateless signals at it. I believe the signals here were originally installed by the Burlington Northern back in the early-1980s. Later-on in the 80s or in the early-90s, it appears that BN replaced the far signal with the current one, and I believe the front and rear mast lights on the closer signal were replaced with the current Safetran heads. Then, in the early-2000s, I believe, BNSF replaced the bell here with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. Thankfully, since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing, which is nice to see. It's nice to get another one of these older Harmon cantilevers filmed, especially since this one still has most of its original lights on it as well. I think this is the only crossing left on the Birmingham Sub with these older Harmon heads at it these days as well. Hopefully BNSF continues to leave this crossing unchanged for many more days to come, but, either way, I'm glad I got it recorded when I did.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Mississippi/ ... /Boundary/