Church Road (SC 46), Hardeeville, SC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-26-21*

Signal on the left: 2.5 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 WRRS 8 inch light, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 WCH 8 inch light, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After the Silver Meteor passed on its way north, we saw the southbound Palmetto was getting close so we continued on down to this crossing to catch it. Didn't have to wait too long here either before it came through, heading to Savannah with a single P42DC for power. After this, I got a recording of the nearby defect detector and we went back to Vidalia, GA, for the night.

Like the others we were able to record on this day, this crossing's another nice one featuring a nice old SCL install from the mid-70s that's still mostly original. It appears that at some point after they were installed though, one of the original lights on each signal (the rear-left light on both, interestingly enough) was replaced, with the closer signal getting a WCH 8 inch light and the far signal getting a re-used WRRS 8 inch light. Then, in the 1990s, the far signal had its original bell and gate mechanism replaced with a WCH mechanical bell and the current Safetran gate mech. The crossing would remain mostly unchanged for a good decade at least though, before the WCH mechanical bell here would die and was replaced with the current NEG e-bell sometime between 2013 and 2016.
Thankfully, no major changes have occured here since then though, which is rather nice to see. I'm especially glad to see that the closer signal is still almost entirely original, with no major changes to it since the one light was replaced in the 70s. The 1st Gen Safetran mechanical bell here also still sounds rather healthy, which is great to see. Hopefully no more major changes occur to these classic signals as well, at least not for the next few years. This is also the southernmost signalized crossing on the Charleston Subdivision in South Carolina, if not the southernmost signalized crossing in SC in general.