McDaniel Road, near College Grove, TN

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 5-23-20*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

Last week, I went up to the Louisville area to document a bunch of older crossings on the CSX lines around there. On Saturday, May 23rd, I was traveling up to Louisville, and decided to stop and document some crossings on the CSX S&NA North and Mainline Subdivisions, to finish both lines out for the site. As I was approaching this crossing, I saw the signal at S.E. McDaniel Siding was showing a clear indication for a northbound, so I went ahead and set on up. Good thing I did, as not long after, CSX Q026 came through with an ES44AH and the Spirit of Dante pulling on the head-end, and another ES44AH working as a mid-train DPU. A bit of a shame that the Spirit unit wasn't leading, but it was still quite nice to see, and was also a great way to start this trip off with!

This crossing itself ain't the most interesting one out there, and certainly was one of the more boring crossings I recorded on my trip. However, in terms of crossings for the S&NA North Sub, this one is definitely one of the better ones, being one of the last two crossings along the line to feature a Safetran Type 3 e-bell!
It appears that originally, this crossing had a pair of gated signals installed by the L&N back in the 1970s, which would've featured all MI equipment, save for the GRS gate mechs. However, in the early 2000s, all of the lights here were replaced with the current Safetran 12x24s (though incandescent at the time), and the GRS gate mech on the closer signal was replaced with the current Safetran one. However, the gate mech and MI mechanical bell on the far signal were left unchanged.
Then, sometime between 2009 and 2012 (according to Google Street View), the far signal was replaced entirely, though the lights were re-used and the crossing remained incandescent. Finally, the crossing got an LED upgrade sometime between 2013 and 2015 when the rest of the crossings were upgraded to LED. Since then, it appears no major changes have occured to this crossing, which is rather nice, as the older L&N-era signal on the near side has been retained (even if it is modernized).
This crossing is also located along McDaniel Siding, which is the northernmost passing siding along the S&NA North Subdivision.