Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-27-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, a RECO LED gate light, and NEG LED gate lights.

When we got up to Waycross, we went around documenting some of the more interesting crossings around the city. As we were finishing up, we heard that a couple of trains were about to head up the CSX Fitzgerald Subdivision, so we went over to this crossing to catch them. The first train that came through was Q026, which had a YN3 ES44AH leading a YN2 AC44CW on the head end with another YN3 ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU. Unfortunately, it wound-up having to stop for a southbound mixed freight, and was just a bit too long to clear the crossing. This was unfortunate because Ethan and I's camera batteries were low, so we shut them off while waiting for either the southbound to pass or the train to get moving. Thankfully, the train eventually got moving but it unfortunately didn't quite clear the crossing soon enough for the gates to rise before the next train came through, with was the southbound mixed freight that they'd been waiting on. This train had four YN3 ES40DCs leading a YN3b ES44AH and a YN3b GP38-2.
While this train was passing, a northbound mixed freight came out of the yard and up through here with a YN3b ES44AH leading a pair of YN3 ES40DCs on the head-end with another YN3b ES44AH working as the rear DPU. Unfortunately, due to just how low our cameras were, a 3-way meet like this, while normally cool to see, was absolutely something that neither of us wanted. Thankfully, my camera had just enough battery left to record the hend-end power of the northbound mixed freight, and I was able to charge it up enough to get the rear end and the gates rising, but man, this was absolutely something I'd've rather not seen at this moment. Unfortunately though, the lack of battery my camera had is why most of the third train was cut-out.

Thankfully though, despite how frustrating this crossing was to record, it's still a rather nice install and probably my favorite in Waycross, so I'm glad I did still get at least an alright video of it. The signals here are a nice mid-70s SCL install, which have really only ever had one major change done to them. They were still pretty much entirely original up until 2014 or so (if I had to guess), when CSX came through and gave the signals a full LED upgrade, replacing the original 8 inch lights in the process. Thankfully though, everything else about these signals remains entirely unchanged, and both signals even still have their original 1st Generation Safetran mechanical bells. Both bells here also still sound quite nice and healthy, so hopefully they'll remain around for a good while longer. One of the overhead lights has had the LED fall out of the lens as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if CSX replaces that soon-ish. All in all, this is a pretty nice crossing so I'm glad I got to record it, even if it was a bit frustrating to record.