Cypress Dale Road, Dogtown, IN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-1-26*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Progress Rail 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Progress Rail 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching the monthly siren test in Jasper, IN, I decided to split-off from everyone else and try to film a few more crossings on the CSX Henderson Subdivision. I decided to first head for this crossing in the unincorporated community of Dogtown, located right between Evansville and the Ohio River. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long as, not too long after I got here, CSX I026 pulled-up to just before this crossing, causing it to time-out.
After a little while of waiting here, CSX I026 started to slowly make its way into Evansville with an ES44AH leading an ET44AH on the head-end, and another ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU. It wound-up stopping on the crossing for a while, as an empty coal train ahead of it still needed to clear-up, and that empty coal seemed to be waiting on M647 to start getting clear of it as well. Eventually, the CSX M647 started to slowly depart from Evansville with a pair of SD70MACs pulling on the head-end and a third ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU as well! Both trains made plenty of stops and starts as they tried to enter or leave Evansville, causing the defect detector just north of this crossing to read-out whenever they started or stopped. Either way, both trains did eventually get going and cleared the crossing after a good while of waiting.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, and I'm honestly glad I got to record it. The signals here were installed by CSX in the mid-2000s, and are pretty much entirely original still. Really the most major changes here were the replacement of the closer signal's gate arm and the tip gate light on the far signal with the current ones. Thankfully, the crossing still remains entirely unchanged otherwise, and still features all of its original Dialight Ball LEDs and Safetran Type 3 e-bell, which is pretty nice to see! Also nice to see that the far signal still features its original diagonally-striped gate arm as well.
Interestingly, all of the light heads here are Progress Rail 12x24 inch ones, which aren't exactly too common on CSX crossings I've noticed. It appears that, in Indiana at least, CSX decided to use some Progress Rail light heads on their gated cantilever installs from the mid-2000s, as there's a few crossings on their trackage in Indiana with them. Three of the four crossings on this stretch of the Henderson Sub between Evansville and the Ohio River, including this crossing, all had their signals installed in the mid-2000s, it appears, and they all received these Progress Rail heads as a result. Definitely nice to get some more Progress Rail light heads filmed, TBH. This crossing is also in a nice, quiet location despite being right outside of Evansville. NGL, I personally wouldn't mind returning here at some point and filming at least one of the other mid-2000s cantilever installs on this part of the Henderson Sub.