Southeastern Avenue & Oriental Street, Indianapolis, IN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-21-23*

Signal on the far left: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights, a WABCO Model 75 gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the near left: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a WRRS mechanical bell, a WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the far right: 1 pair of WRRS 8 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights, a (freezing?) WRRS mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the near right: 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights, 2 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After I caught M360 going through Leota Street, I hopped on over to this crossing right next door to wait on M361. I kinda wish I'd've known that M361 was gonna take quite a while, as I'd've hopped back-up to the Indianapolis Line for some more ex-Conrail equipment, including some Safetran Model 85 gate mechs. Either way, after about five whole hours of waiting, I was able to eventually catch CSX M361 rolling through this crossing with an ET44AH leading an AC44CW and an SD40-2 on the head-end, and an ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU.

This crossing is another very nice one, and I'm certainly quite glad I was able to record it. Unfortunately, while waiting on M361, it got very cold, which seems to have wrecked the nice WRRS bell combo here, as the WRRS bell on the right-hand Oriental Street signal only managed to get a few rings out. The other WRRS bell, however, which seems to have a Teardrop-like gong on it, still sounded rather healthy.
The signals here appear to have originally been another PRR install, I'm guessing from the 50s or 60s. Interestingly, it seems the left-hand signal for Oriental Street originally had a US&S Teardrop bell on it, as the WRRS bell on that signal appears to be mounted to a Teardrop base. The far Southeastern Avenue signal also seems to have originally had a utility pole or something mounted in front of it as well, as there was originally a gateless mast some distance in front of it, which lacked any lights or bells, but did have a crossbuck and X Tracks sign on it, along with CSX's emergency information. The two signals for Oriental Street also have their rear lights angled away from each other, seemingly in an attempt to use them as side lights. It seems the pairs of signals for Southeastern Avenue and Oriental Street each operate off of their own flasher relays and possibly even their own (interconnected) relay cases, as the signals for Oriental Street have their lights flashing noticeably faster than Southeastern Avenue's.
It appears that, in the 1960s or 1970s, the PC replaced the cantilever on the closer side with the current WRRS/FS(?) one. Then, in the 1990s, a few more major changes here occurred. It seems that, during this time, Conrail replaced the cantilever on the far side with the current Safetran one, though reused some MI 8 inch lights on it. At about the same time, they replaced many of the lights here with the current Safetran 8 inch lights, but left a few of the old WRRS 8 inch lights in place.
The crossing remained relatively unchanged for the next decade or two at least, but, sometime between 2015 and 2016, CSX replaced the original WRRS gate mechanism on the right-hand Oriental Street signal with the current Siemens one. Then, sometime between 2018 and 2019, the far Southeastern Avenue signal had its original WRRS gate mechanism replaced with a reused WABCO Model 75 gate mech, no idea where that one came from. Next, sometime between 2019 and 2022, the gateless mast in front of the far cantilever was removed, with the signage being moved over onto the cantilever's mast, except for the crossbuck. Finally, sometime between August of this year and when I visited this crossing, CSX replaced the gate mast on the closer cantilever, causing its original WRRS gate mech to be replaced with another Siemens gate mech. This one is definitely a modern one, with the imprinted logo, but, strangely, the lower half of the back of it is already rather corroded. No idea how that happened, but I suspect it was laying on its back in a damp spot for quite a while.
Either way, this is definitely a great crossing and I'm glad I got to record it. These classic, fully 8 inch signals are great to see, along with the WRRS bell pair here and the one surviving WRRS gate mech. It's a shame the cold weather ruined the bell combo here, but I got a decent (distant) recording of the combo with M360 over at Leota Street, so I suppose it ain't a complete loss. The overhead lights on the closer cantilever are also rather nicely faded, especially the rear pair. Hopefully CSX leaves this classic crossing unchanged for many more years to come.