Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-27-20*

Signal on the far left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Transport Products Corp. gate mechanism, a RECO gate light, and 2 RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the near left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the far right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the near right: a Transport Products Corp. gate mechanism and RECO LED gate lights.
The bell at this crossing is a WRRS mechanical bell mounted on the relay case.
This crossing is located in a quiet zone. Trains do not blow their horns at this crossing.

After catching Q575 in LaGrange, Ethan and I chased it on back to St. Matthews. Sadly, when we got here, it was still raining quite a bit (and we and our cameras got quite soaked, especially while we were waiting), so our videos didn't turn out as well as we'd hoped. Either way, here we see Q575 once again, this time at a different (and older) crossing.

After catching Q575, Q142 had arrived at Osburn Yard with a crew due to come on duty in a few hours, so Ethan and I got some supper and decided to hang around at this crossing for a better video. After a little while of waiting, this rather short Q142 came rolling through with an ES44AH pulling and another ES44AH pushing on the rear.

This crossing is another very nice one. It appears that originally, this was another early TPC install by the L&N, though, in the mid-1990s, CSX replaced all of the gateless masts here with new ones (for some reason).
A bit unusually as well, the bell here is mounted on the relay case, something not seen all that often on L&N installs. However, there's about 5 or so crossings in and around St. Matthews which feature this, for some reason. One of the signals here is also just a gate mast, interestingly enough. I believe this was because the gateless mast that would normally be installed with it is on the opposite side of the street for visibility reasons (the road takes a jog a bit to the side just behind my camera).
It also appears that, based on the ROW and the positioning of the LCL Sub, there was originally a second track through here. However, at some point, it was removed and the signals on the far side were moved up onto newer foundations (as those signals feature metal ones, while the closer ones feature concrete ones).
Either way, probably the coolest thing about this crossing, IMHO is the fact that it still retains a pair of early Transport Products Corp. gate mechs! Even through all of these changes, the L&N, SBD, and CSX have never bothered to replace either of them, for which I'm quite glad. Especially since you get a good view of the early TPC gate mech on this side.

Also, while filming Q142, I decided to set-up my secondary camera and get a close-up view of one of the early TPC gate mechs here: