Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 10-15-25*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a US&S Model 95 gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.
Far median signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Middle median signal: 1 pair of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs.
Near median signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Harmon Fading LEDs, 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a US&S Model 95 gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After Y203 cleared Democrat Road, I saw that something was getting lined north out of BNSF's yard, so I raced on up to this crossing and quickly got set-up. After a little while of waiting, shortly before sunset, I was able to get my third and final train of the day: another northbound BNSF mixed freight with an ES44C4 leading an ES44DC for power. After this, I went on back home to Huntsville for the night.

This crossing is a pretty neat one, though mainly for the set-up. The signals here seem to be a late-90s BNSF install, though it seems the bell on the far cantilever was replaced in the 2000s for whatever reason. Regardless, the crossing remained largely until sometime between 2015 and 2019, when BNSF did a large upgrade to this crossing. In this upgrade, the two gated median signals were added to the crossing, allowing the cantilever gate arms to be shortened, and the three existing signals were upgraded to LED. For whatever reason, BNSF used a mix of Dialight Ball LEDs on the overhead lights and Harmon Fading LEDs on the masts. At about the same time, as well, BNSF added the current GS Type 3 e-bell to the closer cantilever signal, which had previously been bell-less.
Thankfully, since this crossing's massive, mid-2010s overhaul, nothing else appears to have changed to it, which is nice to see. Due to the angle at which Ragan Street intersects South Parkway here, a gateless median signal had been installed here when the gated cantilevers were, which looks pretty neat, IMHO. Thankfully, this signal was retained during the upgrade, making for a bit of a neat trio of mast signals located in the median of this crossing. This crossing also features a mix of US&S Model 95 and Siemens gate mechanisms - something that doesn't seem to common on the BNSF I've noticed. Hopefully this crossing remains unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I finally got to film it when I did.