Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-22-21*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of Harmon 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, 1 Harmon 12x20 inch light with a Harmon Fading LED, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with General Signals LEDs, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

This was the last crossing we chased L781 to on this day. After this, they reached the yard in Macon and finished-up for the day.

The crossing here is a pretty nice one. Originally, this was an SBD install from the 80s, but in the late 90s or early 2000s it appears, the signal on the far side was replaced with the current one for some reason. Then, between 2007 and 2012, the original WCH mechanical bell on the closer signal was replaced with a General Signals e-bell, I'm guessing a Type 2. Then, sometime after 2015 (but before 2019, it appears), the GS e-bell here died as well, so it got replaced with the current GS Type 3. Finally, sometime within the last year, the lights here were all upgraded to LED, with the far signal getting a mixture of Harmon Fading and GE Uniform Look LEDs, and the closer one getting all General Signals LEDs. Despite being less than a year old as well, one of the General Signals LEDs facing the camera is already having a strand failure, which kinda speaks to the "quality" of these things, lol.
Either way though, the closer signal is still largely original and, IMHO, still looks rather nice, so I'd certainly say this was a rather nice crossing to record, even if it's been modernized over the years. I do always enjoy watching older WCH signals operate (for some reason), so I'm glad to have gotten this one filmed too. We also got to meet-up with a few other out of town railfans here too.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/Frank ... gins_Mill/