West Avenue #2, Elmhurst, IL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-5-22*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH Type 3 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, an ASC electronic bell, a WCH gae mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the far right: a WCH gate mechanism.
Pedestrian signal on the near right: a WCH gate mechanism.
This crossing is in a quiet zone.

After catching the race in Villa Park, I continued on east along the UP Geneva Sub to get one final crossing before heading back to Whinny City for the last few panels I wanted to see. I wound-up missing a pair of Metra trains meeting on the crossing when I got here, but after a few short minutes of waiting, this eastbound intermodal train came rolling through with an ET44AH leading an SD70ACe and an AC44CWCTE on the head-end and an AC45CCTE and an AC44CW working as the mid-train DPUs. After this, I made my way back to the con hotel, though this wouldn't be my last train of the day.

This crossing is another rather nice one, featuring what appears to have been a 1980s C&NW install. In the 1990s, the C&NW replaced the bell here with the current ASC e-bell. Then, in the 2000s, UP replaced both gate mechanisms here (at the time) with the current WCH ones, and likely gave this crossing an LED upgrade at about the same time. Then, sometime between 2008 and 2012, UP added the current WCH e-bell to the far signal (which was originally bell-less). Finally, sometime between 2012 and 2015, the pedestrian signals were installed here. Since then, thankfully, no major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing.
Of course, my favorite thing about this crossing is the ASC e-bell that's featured here. It's nice to be able to film yet another one of these, and I'm glad I was able to do so. Hopefully these signals remain around here for a good while longer, but either way, I'm certainly glad I was able to film these.