Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-23-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After seeing the malfunctioning crossing, I continued working my way up documenting crossings along the Mainline Sub. When I got to this crossing, I decided to set-up and wait for a train. After a while of waiting, I heard a train horn to my south, and this northbound CSX mixed freight came through with a CSX ST70AH leading a YN2 AC44CW on the head end with a YN2 ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU and a friendly crew on board! This was also the first CSX ST70AH I ever caught, so it to be leading with a friendly crew was just icing on the cake for me!

This crossing is also quite a nice one. The signals here are some rather old L&N signals which feature US&S masts (though the original base on the far signal appears to have been replaced), which likely would've featured all Transport Products Corp. equipment originally. However, over the years, these signals appear to have seen many changes to the equipment, so I ain't even gonna try and guess what the various upgrades have been to them and when they occured.
A bit more interesting though is the bell here, or the lack thereof! It appears that typically, at least on the surviving L&N installs of this age and style, there would've been at least a WRRS bell mounted on the side of the relay case (if it wasn't on one of the signals themselves). However, for whatever reason, this crossing appear to have never had one, making this crossing the first bell-less gated crossing I've ever seen (and recorded)!
Setups like this appear to be more common up in the northeast and midwest, especially on former Conrail lines. However, from what I can tell, most railroads here in the southeast typically only did bell-less installs on gateless crossings, including the L&N (when they did them, that is). In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the only bell-less gated crossing left in service on any former L&N line, if not the entire southeast, so I'm quite glad to have recorded it.
Also, after first visiting this state all the way back in 2016, this was the first time I was successfully able to record a crossing in Kentucky, so what a crossing to make that personal achievement on!