Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, IL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-5-22*

Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Electro-tech LEDs, a WCH Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Pedestrian signal on the left: a Safetran gate mechanism.
This crossing is in a quiet zone.

After catching the outbound Metra at Evergreen Avenue, Zac and I walked over to this crossing to get it documented and wait for the inbound Metra that was coming. A few minutes later, this inbound Metra train came through with an F40PH for power. After this, I finished documenting the crossing and we went back to the hotel for our final night in Illinois.

This crossing is another rather nice one, and I'm glad I was able to get it recorded. The signals here appear to be a 1980s C&NW install, but in the mid-90s, the C&NW replaced the gate mechanism on the closer signal with the current one. The crossing then remained relatively unchanged up until the 2000s, when UP gave this crossing an LED upgrade. Then, sometime between 2007 and 2009, UP replaced the original Safetran mechanical bell here with the current WCH e-bell. Next, sometime between 2009 and 2011, the Safetran Model 85 gate mech on the pedestrian signal here was sadly replaced by the current Safetran gate mechanism. The crossing then remained largely unchanged until sometime between 2019 and 2022, when the gate mechanism on the far signal was replaced with the current Siemens one.
Thankfully, despite the various upgrades here, both of the older Safetran cantilevers from the C&NW here remain in service, which are also quite nice to see. Like I've said before, I always enjoy recording cantilevers of this style, so I'm glad I got some more of these shot. A bit unusually for a UP crossing as well, is that the closer signal here features a 4 inch NEG LED gate light (the one at the base of the gate arm), something which I haven't seen anywhere else on the UP before. Will be interesting to see if any more of these crop-up elsewhere on UP's system, or if this will remain an unusual one-off install.
While the lighting was better on the far side of the crossing, the sun was low enough here that I felt that I could film on this side without it being super backlit. Not to mention, I felt that this angle was better for the crossing as well, as I probably would've had to film on the far side of US 14 from this crossing, as there isn't much room between the tracks and the highway here. Either way though, I'm glad I got these signals recorded. Hopefully they'll remain around here for many more years to come as well though.