Academy Street Railroad Crossing #1, Cary, NC (WABCO Bell crossing)

[Trainzmandude2012]

Both sides: Modern Industries Cantilever with MI 12x24 lights (WCH 2nd Gen LEDs), gated masts with US&S Model 75 Gates, US&S 12x20 Lights (WCH 2nd Gen LEDs), and WABCO Bells (1st gen I believe)

The common times for these activating are after 8AM or after 9PM for Amtrak Silver Star services. Outside of that, it's all circumstantial.

[pluey200]

Sounds just like the WRRS bell on the CSX Newcastle Sub in Creston OH!

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 8-2-24*

Signal on the left: 5 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 1 pair of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a WABCO mechanical bell, a US&S Model 75 gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 1 pair of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a dead WABCO mechanical bell, a US&S Model 75 gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On the morning of August 2nd, I got on up and got out to see about getting some of the crossings in Cary on the CSX Aberdeen Sub (the S Line) filmed. As I knew the Amtrak Silver Star would likely come first, I set-up at this crossing and waited. After a little bit of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: Amtrak 92 making its stop at Cary with a pair of P42DCs for power!

This crossing is honestly a great one, and one I'd been wanting to get filmed since I first visited this area back at the tail-end of 2021. This crossing is arguably the most famous one in Cary, certainly one of the most filmed, though with good reason.The signals here are an early-80s SBD install that are pretty much still almost entirely original. In fact, the only notable change here occurred sometime between 2018 and 2019, when CSX upgraded this crossing to LED. Thankfully, since then, nothing else too major has changed to this crossing, yet at least.
Sadly, sometime within the past year or so, the WABCO bell on the closer signal died, which is definitely a shame to see. The WABCO bell pair here was easily the thing that drew the people to this crossing to the most, and probably one of the most easily-filmed pairs of WABCOs, given the fact that Amtrak rolls through here during the daylight hours. Hopefully CSX gets the dead WABCO here working again, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it's already become an NEG e-bell by now. Either way, at least I got to film this crossing in action once before any of the original hardware (excluding the long-gone incandescents) is replaced. And, back in 2021, I did get to hear the pair here operating while I was filming the Carolinian at the other crossing on Academy Street, even if they were in the background. In addition to that, I know RaisedLetter, crossbuckmann1667, TheCentralTexasRailfan, and TonyM.8542 all got this classic crossing filmed in action when the pair here were working, so thankfully it didn't go unrecorded.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/North_Carolin ... y/Academy/