Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-30-20*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, a RECO gate light, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x20 inch lights, a dead NEG electronic bell, a Transport Products Corp. gate mechanism, an NEG LED gate light, and RECO LED gate lights.

On May 30th, for my last full day of railfanning in the Louisville area, I was out and about trying to make my way over to the P&L (since it sounded like they were doing some switching over the scanner), when I stumbled across this crossing that I didn't even know existed! Since I knew Q688 was going to be coming through before too long, I decided to set-up and wait for him here, and, after a while of waiting, he came through with an ES40DC and an ES44AH pulling an absolutely massive train with a ton of loaded autoracks bound for Indianapolis.

This crossing is a pretty nice one with a bit of a neat mixture of equipment on it. Surprisingly, this crossing also still features an early TPC gate mechanism, which is the main reason why I went ahead and set on up here. The NEG e-bell here is also pretty much brand new, so I'm kinda surprised that it's already dead. There's also part of a gate stabilizer hanging from the closer gate arm, and both signals also have backwards crossbucks (good job, CSX!). This crossing (and the next one north, Kentucky Ave. #1) both feature signs alerting people to increased train traffic along this line, though they've been up for a few years and I'm not sure they're needed anymore (especially since the one on the far side's gone missing and it's never been replaced).
This crossing, when first installed, appears to have had an interesting set-up. Back when it was first installed, there was a business on the opposite corner from my camera, so the crossing had three signals. One was a gated signal for the driveway for said business, while the other two were for the road. The closer signal was one of these, while the far signal was actually installed on the same side of the street, gate mech and all! Both of the signals for the road likely originally had WRRS bells, and both also retained split crossbucks up into the 2000s.
In the 1980s, it appears that CSX upgraded the lights on both road signals here with MI 12 inch lights (the far signal got MI 12x24s, while the closer signal got the somewhat unusual-for-CSX MI 12x20s). Then, in the 2000s, CSX replaced the bell on the far signal with a General Signals e-bell (while the driveway signal appears to have been left completely unchanged, especially since it appears it was still 8 inch). Then, sometime between 2007 and 2011, the business on the left here appears to have been torn-down in order to build the new gated community that stands there today. When this happened, CSX also removed the signal on the far side of the crossing and the driveway signal, and replaced them with the current signal that stands there today.
However, when they installed that signal, it featured a General Signals e-bell mounted on the side of it, which was probably the first side-mounted bell on a CSX signal. The signal on the left also lacked a 2 tracks sign, though it was later added (and the crossbuck on that signal appears to have been backwards since it was installed). Then, between 2011 and 2014, the General Signals e-bell on the far side was replaced with the current NEG e-bell. The crossing then remained unchanged again for a few more years until sometime between 2015 and 2017, when the closer signal got a fresh coat of paint, but the split crossbuck was replaced with the current backwards one. The "Notice Increased Train Traffic" signs were also installed here around this time, though the far one was already missing by December of 2017.
Finally, the most recent change here, was that sometime after May of 2019, the original WRRS mechanical bell on the closer signal was replaced by the current NEG e-bell, which has already gone dead. Not sure if this is due to the wiring inside of the signal beginning to rot, or just a testimate to NEG's "quality", but I was surprised when I only heard one bell here ringing. Either way, this is still a pretty neat crossing and I'm glad to have stumbled upon it and recorded it.