Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 4-12-21*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights, 1 Safetran 8 inch light, 2 pairs of Modern industries 12x20 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Modern Industries mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Modern Industries 8 inch lights, 1 Safetran 8 inch light, 2 pairs of Modern industries 12x20 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Modern Industries mechanical bell, a GRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On April 12th, I went out to the Cartersville to try and chase CSX A700 across the Cartersville Sub, though, when I got there, they were working the yard to build their train. However, there was something lined to head south from the Etowah Sub and onto the W&A Sub, so I went on down to downtown Cartersville to set-up. Kinda just chose this crossing at random, since it was the first one I saw to still retain older signals with mechanical bells, but I'm certainly glad I did. Not long after I got set-up here did the southbound come through, and it turned-out to be a 36-car ballast train with a single CSX AC44CW pulling it: CSX 15, which was still wearing YN2 paint! Honestly, of my two catches on this day, this easily had to have been my better one, lol.

This crossing is also quite a nice one, featuring a classic pair of WCH cantilevers installed by the L&N back in the 1970s, which are thankfully still mostly original. Wasn't too long before changes would start to occur here though, as in the 1980s, the front-left on the mast of the closer cantilever here was replaced with a US&S 12x20 inch light by the SBD, likely due to the original MI 8 inch light getting struck. Then, in the 2000s (and certainly before 2007), multiple changes occurred to this crossing. First, the original GRS gate mech (or whatever was here at the time) on the far side was replaced with the current Safetran one. Next, the overhead lights were all upgraded to LED, with the far side getting WCH 2nd Gen LEDs while the closer side got Dialight Ball LEDs, no idea why CSX chose to mix the two.
The crossing then remained unchanged until sometime between 2012 and 2015, the front-left mast light on the closer cantilever was replaced again, this time with a Safetran 8 inch light! Honestly gotta be the first time I've seen really *any* railroad do that before. At about the same time, it appears that the original Modern Industries 8 inch front-left mast light on the far cantilever was also replaced with a Safetran 8 inch light, though I ain't entirely sure why this was done.
Thankfully though, this crossing does still remain largely unchanged, especially since it still has both of its original cantilevers with their original overhead lights and most of their original mast lights. The closer signal also still retains its original GRS gate mech, which is always nice to see. Of course, the best feature that this crossing still has has to be its MI bell pair, which still both sound quite loud and healthy! Hopefully the crossing remains mostly unchanged for years to come, and especially hopefully the pair of MI bells here hang-around for a while yet.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/Cartersville/Main/