Pate Road, Greenville, SC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 12-23-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a US&S Model 95 gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a US&S Model 95 gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching 265 at Artillery Road, NS 153 was coming right behind it, so I hopped on over to this crossing in Greenville to get it. After a little bit of waiting, NS 153 came rolling through with a UP SD70ACe leading a UP AC45CCTE, a BNSF SD70ACe, and an NS Dash-9.

This crossing is another rather nice one, featuring a rather interesting (IMHO) pair of signals at it. It appears that previously, there had been a pair of really old (I'm guessing either TPC/RACO or GRS) signals from the Southern Railway here. However, between 2008 and 2012, NS replaced the signals and opted to re-use a pair of 1990s NS signals from another crossing here, though putting a pair of US&S Model 95 gate mechs onto them instead. Since then, no major changes appear to have occurred here, which is rather nice to see, especially since there doesn't seem to be too many NS crossings with both US&S Model 95 gate mechs and mechanical bells these days.
Now, where these signals came from is a complete mystery. I personally would've assumed somewhere else in the area, but that doesn't seem to be the case. On the mast of both signals is the older emergency information, but here's where it gets weird...
Both signals older emergency info claims to be for a crossing on a street called "Finishing Road", with the DOT number 414726K. Would be fine, could easily pop that into the FRA's inventory website, except that the DOT number apparently just straight-up doesn't exist. Putting 414726K just returns a "Crossing number is invalid!" error on the website. Incrementing the letter (incase it'd been written down wrong) also returns errors, except for one. That one is 414726E, which is for a crossing that was on the DNGO out in Texas and was marked as closed back in 2013. Definitely not an NS crossing these could've come from. It's possible some other part of the number is wrong, but I haven't been able to confirm that yet. If the DOT number begins with a 400-number though, then that would most likely put it on a former N&W line.
Searching for "Finishing Road" on Google Maps does bring-up a few different places, but none of them appear to possibly be where these signals were from. It's also possible that the street name is wrong as well, which would make finding where these signals came from much harder. If anyone wants to try to find the former location of these signals, do feel free to.