Water Tower Road, near Big Sandy, TX

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 2-1-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and Alstom LED gate lights.

After catching Amtrak 21, Juniper and I got another crossing in Gladewater documented before deciding there wasn't anything in the area after a bit more waiting and grabbed some lunch. After lunch, we continued on west to this crossing just east of Big Sandy. Here we waited a couple more hours, again not really seeing anything. As we saw that Amtrak was soon to depart from Dallas, we decided to start making our way over to a crossing in Silver Lake I wanted to make sure I got. As we were going through Mineola, however, we wound-up stumbling across an eastbound mixed freight passing the Amtrak station there. As such, I turned us around and we raced back over to this crossing, with a decent amount of time to spare (despite stopping for a quick bathroom break on the way). Here, we were able to catch this eastbound mixed freight accelerating out of Big Sandy with a UP AC45CCTE leading a UP AC44CWCTE and a CSX SD70MAC for power.

This crossing is a great one, and I'm glad I was able to record it in the end. The signals here are a nice 1990s UP install that's still almost entirely original. It appears that between 2012 and 2013, UP upgraded this crossing to LED, but thankfully no further major changes appear to have occurred. Both of the original WCH mechanical bells are still here and still sound fairly healthy, which is great to see. The gate mechs are also still the original older WCH ones, though they use the newer style of counterweight arms on them. Do kinda wish they had the WRRS-style counterweight arms, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose.
Hopefully these older WCH signals continue to remain unchanged for many more years to come. I always do enjoy seeing WCH signals of this age in action though, especially when they still have their original bells like these ones. All in all, this is a great crossing and I'm glad I got to record it.