Nash Street, Elm City, NC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-31-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a GE electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I shot the northbound Palmetto, I went down to this crossing to wait for my next train of the day. After about an hour and a half of waiting, I was able to get my ninth train of the day: Amtrak 89 flying south towards Wilson with an ALC-42 for power.

This crossing is another great one, and another one I absolutely wanted to make sure I got on this trip. Originally, there was an old ACL install here from about the 1950s or 60s or so, which remained largely unchanged until they were replaced. A bit unusually, those signals were not replaced until sometime between 2016 and 2023, with the replacement signals being the current ones. Thankfully, since then, no major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing.
Admittedly, the age of these definitely something I wasn't expecting, as CSX primarily installed signals of this style around 2010, rather than close to 2020. I'm not entirely sure if these were reused from somewhere else or not, but, if they were, I can't say for certain where they would've originally come from. Thankfully, they do still retain their original GE e-bell, the only one on the CSX South End Sub outside of Fayetteville and easily the star of the show here. Hopefully CSX keeps it around for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I got this recorded when I did.