Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 10-15-25*

Signal on the far left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a dead General Signals electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.
Signal on the near left: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the far right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the near right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light, and RECO LED gate lights.
This crossing also features a pair of masts with microwave detectors mounted on them.

After catching Memphis's weekly siren test on October 15th, I decided to hop over to the BNSF Thayer South Subdivision to see about trying to get a few crossings recorded before it got too dark. I got out to this crossing first, since it wasn't too far away, where, after a bit of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: a northbound BNSF mixed freight rolling through with an ET44C4 leading an ES44C4 and an SD70ACe for power.

This crossing is a pretty neat one, even if the equipment isn't the most interesting. It appears that the signals here were originally just a pair of gated Safetran signals installed by the BN in the mid-90s, though, in the 2000s, BNSF replaced both bells here with GS Type 2 e-bells. Then, sometime between 2008 and 2011, I believe, BNSF upgraded the signals here to LED. The crossing then remained largely unchanged until 2019, when BNSF upgraded this crossing to the current quad-gate install. During this upgrade, they installed the two exit signals and replaced the far entry signal, along with adding the two masts with microwave detectors on them on the exit-sides of the crossing. Thankfully, the BN-era entry signal on this side was retained, though it appears that BNSF replaced the gate mechanism as part of the upgrade. Interestingly, it seems BNSF had some second thoughts on the placement of the masts for the detectors here, as they were moved to the entry corners by 2021. Thankfully, since then, nothing else seems to have changed here.
Definitely nice to get another quad-gate crossing recorded, especially since this one still retains an old BN-era signal at it. Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure why quads were installed here, seeing as this isn't a quiet zone. My guess is that it's related due to this being a bit of a skew intersection between Castalia Street and Person Avenue, and had issues with people driving around the lowered gates as a result. It probably also explains why microwave detectors were installed here as well, which are to detect any cars on the crossing when the gates begin to descend to prevent anyone from being trapped on the crossing. You can actually see these in action due to a couple of cars driving around the lowered gate arms, with the second one causing the exit signal on this side to stop its descent and raise back up before descending again. TBQH, this set-up honestly reminds me of the MCB-OD crossings and especially the AFBCL crossings over in the UK, which operate in similarly, IIRC.