Broadway - Mechanicville, NY

[TommyBNSF]

And after 2 years and 2 months of inactivity, 4 old relay cases in Rochelle STILL remain! My guess is that it is because it is connected with the telegraph poles along the tracks and other cases are still powered by those poles.

[weatherdan882002]

Caught the end of a train at the crossing today and the bell pattern has changed AGAIN! They now stop ringing when the gates go up, like it was when the new signals were first installed. The light flash rate is still the same though. It's so weird that this crossing has had numerous changes made to it since it was upgraded and yet Viall Avenue 2 hasn't been changed at all.

[bnsflover]

CP just has to decide what they want to do with the bells.

[weatherdan882002]

The new track and cement grade have been placed next to the crossing over the past week and today they closed the crossing so they can begin the process of upgrading the grade (which again is badly needed).

[weatherdan882002]

Well, as I said, they "began the process". Turns out all they did then was rip up part of the old grade (the pieces of rubber that surrounds the rails) and fill in the vacant space with asphalt. It remained that way for a month and then last week, the crossing was closed for a good 4 days while they ripped all that up AND the tracks and installed a new cement grade. Needless to say, the crossing is MUCH better now than it ever has been.

[weatherdan882002]

Over 4 year later the crossing has had some changes and it's become less uniform than it was. The left Dialight LED light on the rear of the westbound signal must have died because it's been replaced, however instead of putting in another Dialight LED, they've put in a WCH LED! Also within the past month, the WCH e-bell for the eastbound signal must have died because it too has been replaced, however instead of replacing it with another WCH e-bell, they've replaced it with a General Signals e-bell! I took a bunch more pictures of the crossing, but I'm waiting until I find out what tone the GS e-bell is set to before sending them into the site because I haven't heard the new bell in action yet. The bell replacement doesn't bother me, but I don't like how they replaced that old Dialight LED with a new WCH LED; either they should have installed a new Dialight LED, or replaced the other Dialight LED with a new WCH LED as well, as it looks really odd. But I guess CP only likes to replace what's absolutely necessary...