Persimmon Avenue, Sanford, FL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-25-25*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights and an NEG electronic bell.
Signal on the far right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights and an NEG electronic bell.
Signal on the near right: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights and a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell.

On the morning of June 25th, I got on up and hopped back north across the Orlando area to try and catch L717 on the CSX Aloma Spur again. After waiting a while over at 25th Street #2, I saw the Auto Train was getting close to Sanford, so I decided to hop over to this crossing to catch it. After a little bit of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: Amtrak 53 arriving into the terminal at Sanford with a pair of ALC-42s for power, and a B32-8WH handling the autoracks! I think this is the first time I've ever caught a B32-8WH "leading" anything, TBH.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, and is easily the largest railroad crossing I've ever recorded (so far)! This crossing has 10 different tracks going across it, thanks to the many yard tracks needed to hold the Auto Train's autoracks and Superliner cars during the day, along with several tracks used to access some shops right next to this terminal as well. This crossing is one of only about four or so crossings in the US with a double-digit amount of tracks going across it, and is one of three that has any signage listing the number of tracks or any signals at it (and is the third highest of said categories), as well as easily being the largest gateless crossing in the US (if you don't count that one massive one in Texas that doesn't even have crossbucks, which, coincidentally, is also the largest crossing in the US). I have no doubt that this crossing has the most tracks of any crossing in the State of Florida, TBH. I believe this crossing is also the only (remaining) gateless crossing on the CSX Aloma Spur, interestingly enough, and is probably also the easiest of them to record given that you can get the Auto Train here.
Anyways, this crossing appears to have originally had the signals at it installed by the Seaboard System back in the mid-80s, presumably when this terminal was refurbished by Amtrak for their Auto Train service, after buying the terminal from the folded Auto Train Corporation earlier in the decade. Interestingly, only the cantilevers here originally had bells, with the mast signal in the middle of the crossing originally being bell-less. In the late-90s and/or 2000s, it appears, CSX replaced both bells here with General Signals e-bells, with at least the far cantilever getting a GS Type 2 e-bell. Then, sometime between 2007 and 2011, CSX replaced the bell on the closer signal with the current Safetran Type 2 e-bell. The crossing remained unchanged for close to a decade after that, but then, sometime between 2019 and 2022, the far cantilever had its GS Type 2 replaced with the current NEG e-bell. Finally, sometime after 2022, CSX added the current NEG e-bell to the mast signal here.
Thankfully, despite these upgrades, the crossing not only still remains gateless, but also fully incandescent with all of its original lights! Hopefully these signals remain largely unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record them when I did. Definitely quite a unique crossing, and one of the few gateless crossings I've gotten to record in the state of Florida. In fact, I think it might be the tenth gateless crossing I've ever filmed in Florida? They're certainly not super common in this state, that's for sure.