Michigan Street #2, Indianapolis, IN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-21-23*

Signal on the far left: 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights and 1 pair of Federal Signal 8 inch lights.
Signal on the near left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 2 pairs of Harmon 8 inch lights, a Siemens gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a dead RECO (LED?) gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 2 pairs of Harmon 8 inch lights, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On November 11th, for the last day of my trip to the Midwest/Ponyville Ciderfest, I woke-up in Indianapolis, IN, and checked-out of my hotel for one final day of railfanning. I decided to start-out at this crossing on the CSX Indianapolis Line, where, after about 40-ish minutes of waiting, I was able to get this CSX G228 rolling through with a pair of ES44AHs for power.

This crossing is a fairly nice one, featuring a neat bell-less install. Admittedly, I always do enjoy seeing bell-less installs, especially gated ones, as they're rather rare in my area, and are almost always gateless for the few that do exist. It seems these signals replaced an older New York Central install, with possibly the gateless mast on the far side being an old Penn Central or early Conrail one. It seems the signals here were largely installed by Conrail back in the 1970s either way, but, in the 1990s, the front lights on the gateless signal and the front-right mast light of the left-hand cantilever were replaced with Safetran 8 inch lights. The crossing then remained largely unchanged into CSX's ownership, but, sometime between 2016 and 2017, CSX replaced the gate mast on the right-hand cantilever with a reused 90s Conrail one, which caused the original GRS Type D gate mech on that signal to be replaced by a reused WCH gate mech. Then, sometime between 2018 and 2019, the gate mast on the right-hand cantilever was replaced once again, this time with the current one featuring a reused Siemens gate mech, but the Conrail-era mast was reinstalled on the left-hand cantilever to replace that older gate mast and GRS Type D gate mech. Finally, sometime between 2019 and 2022, CSX did some more upgrades here. First, it appears that both cantilevers had their mast lights replaced with the current LED WCH 12x24s. At about the same time, the WCH gate mech here was replaced with a new Siemens gate mech. Since then, thankfully, no major changes have occurred to this crossing.
It's definitely rather nice to see most of the classic 8 inch lights are still here, as I always do like Conrail's 8 inch installs. The gateless mast signal on the far side, provided for pedestrians, is also rather neat to see, as that's something you don't see very often, especially not down in the southeastern US. Admittedly, I ain't sure if the lone RECO gate light here is LED or not, though I strongly suspect it is, as it is sadly dead. Hopefully CSX replaces that gate light soon but otherwise leaves this crossing unchanged for many more years to come. Either way, however, I'm certainly quite glad I was able to film this crossing when I did.