Ghio Road, Ghio, NC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 12-21-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a US&S Teardrop bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a US&S Teardrop bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and a RECO gate light.

After catching I038 in Dillon, I hit the road to chase it north and quickly raced on up the Andrews Sub to this crossing in the tiny unincorporated community of Ghio, just outside of Hamlet, NC, with just a few minutes to spare. Here we see this train once more, and I let it go after this to return back down to Dillon.

This crossing is a very nice one, and easily one of my favorites from the trip, as well as being the first crossing I was successfully able to record in North Carolina! What a crossing to start off the state with, lol.
The signals here are another 1940s (or so) SAL install, but it appears that in the 1960s, the SCL replaced the original lights here with some WRRS 8 inch lights. The crossing seems to have remained largely unchanged after that, but then, in the late-90s or 2000s, CSX replaced both of the gate mechs here with the current Safetran gate mechs. The crossing was then left largely untouched again after that until sometime within the past few years, when CSX upgraded this crossing to LED, like pretty much almost all other CSX crossings in North Carolina. Interestingly enough, the WCH heads they used here seem to be older ones which I believe were new old stock, but the LEDs are definitely the current ones CSX uses.
However, the best part about this crossing is easily the bells: a pair of working 2nd Generation US&S Teardrop bells! These bells do sound pretty healthy, though the far one sounds a bit worse than the closer one, and certainly sound much better than the pair down in Latta. No idea how these have managed to hang on here despite the various upgrades that have been done to the signals, but I'm glad they're still around as well.
The closer signal also features a RECO incandescent gate light, which is pretty nice to see as well, though I think I can definitely say I prefer the Teardrop pair here, lol. Hopefully CSX leaves this crossing unchanged for many more years to come, or at least keeps the Teardrops in working order here for many more years to come, but either way, I'm certainly quite glad I was able to record it in action. This was also easily the most Teardrop bells I've recorded in one day, with five different Teardrop bells across three different crossings!