Cedar Street (KY 73), Franklin, KY

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 12-3-23*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, NEG LED gate lights, and a RECO gate light.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

On December 3rd, I went-up to stay at EthantheRailfanner's house for a few nights in order to be able to shoot the CSX Mainline Subdivision some. On my way up, as I didn't have to travel *too* far, I decided to spend the day railfanning the Mainline Sub some, in order to start work on getting the crossings along that line filmed. Luckily for me, when I got to Franklin, I142 was already close-by, so, about 10 minutes after I got to this crossing, CSX I142 came through with an ES44AH pulling on the head-end, and an ET44AH, CSX 3440, the Spirit of Ravenna, working as the train's DPU! This was definitely a nice catch to start this trip off with.

This crossing is a rather nice one, and I believe is also the last one in Franklin to still feature 8 inch lights at it. It appears that these signals were originally a 1950s or 1960s L&N install, but, in the 2000s, CSX replaced the signal on the far side entirely with the current one, and also replaced the gate mast of the closer signal with the current one. Then, sometime between 2009 and 2013, CSX replaced the original WRRS mechanical bell here with the current Safetran Type 2 e-bell. Since then, thankfully, no major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing.
I'm definitely rather glad to see that the closer signal still retains its classic WRRS 8 inch lights, and, I will admit, I'm kinda surprised that mast wasn't replaced here when the rest were. The backgrounds on these lights are also rather nicely faded too.
The far signal is also a bit odd, as for whatever reason the gate mast was installed in front of the lights. That signal also still retains an older fiberglass diagonally-striped gate arm, which is rather nice to see as well. Definitely a nice crossing to start my Mainline Sub trip off on.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Kentucky/A-K/Franklin/Cedar/