Fairview Street, Lake City, SC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 12-20-21*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1.5 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching I038, I hung around at Main Street in Kingstree for a while, but nothing seemed to be coming, so I decided to start my trek north and see if I can get anything else. However, I saw that the north end of the siding in Kingstree had a clear signal lined for a northbound, so I tried to return back there, only to just barely miss the northbound mixed freight that was coming. As such, I quickly chased it up to Lake City, and was able to beat it with some time to spare. Here we see the northbound mixed freight, which had a YN2 AC44CW leading a YN3 WS44AH for power, easily my best catch of the day.

This crossing is a bit of an interesting one, although probably not the best one in Lake City, but I'm still somewhat glad I went with this one. This crossing features what appears to have originally been a 1940s(?) ACL install, most likely originally with US&S 8 inch lights and a pair of Teardrop bells (based on the base the closer signal's bell is mounted on). In the late-1960s, it appears that the early SCL replaced all of the lights here with WRRS 8 inch lights, and replaced both bells with what I believe were WRRS mechanical bells. The crossing them remained almost completely unchanged until the early 2010s, when the far signal was struck and replaced with a modern CSX signal featuring a mix of WCH 12x24 inch lights for the main lights and Safetran 12x24 inch lights for the side lights (all with WCH 2nd Gen LEDs, it appears), an Invensys Rail gate mech, and an NEG electronic bell. Then, sometime between 2012 and 2014, the remaining WRRS gate mech on the closer signal was replaced with the current Safetran one, which I believe was re-used from somewhere else.
Then, sometime between 2014 and 2019, the far signal was replaced once again, though the replacement this time around featured a mix of older re-used equipment, some of which came from the previous CSX-installed signal, such as the gate mech, one WCH 12x24 inch light, and one Safetran 12x24 inch light, along with a re-used pair of Safetran 12x24 inch incandescent lights, and some modern WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, and a new NEG e-bell.
After 2019, more changes would occur here. At some point, the closer signal had its mechanical bell replaced with the current NEG e-bell. The far signal also had a few more of its lights replaced. One pair of the side lights seem to have gotten replaced with slightly newer WCH 12x24 inch lights, this time with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, while the remaining Safetran 12x24 inch light with a WCH 2nd Generation LED was replaced with a WCH 12x24 inch light with a Leotek EV Series LED, which I strongly suspect came from the replaced pair of side lights.
Thankfully, the closer signal does still feature a full set of classic WRRS 8 inch lights, even if they aren't the original ones. Admittedly, there were probably more interesting crossings to record in Lake City, but I wanted to go with this one due to something you can't even see on camera, lol. For some reason, mounted to the rear of the closer signal (just beneath the bell and obscured by the crossbuck) is a small arm with a pair of signal caps mounted to it. Not sure why this exists, but I personally suspect there may have once been a pair of lunar white crossing indicator lights (most likely made by US&S) mounted to it by the ACL. When they were removed, the railroad who maintained it at the time (I strongly suspect the SCL) decided to just cap the spots where they'd been rather than remove the small mounting arm entirely, which is certainly a bit strange to see on a signal. Although it isn't visible in the video, I did make sure to get a picture of it (which will be put-up on the site when I personally update SC next), and it can also be easily seen on Google Street View.