Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-29-21*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of WCH 8 inch lights, 1 Safetran 8 inch light, a WCH mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 8 inch lights, a dying WCH mechanical bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching Q410, I went on up to this crossing in Ebenezer on the CSX Columbia Subdivision to try and get Q197. While waiting for it here, @Bigmindcreator TS joined me at this crossing to wait for it. After a little while, we saw something approaching from the south, so we started recording. Turned out to be this northbound CSX Q692 which had a pair of ES40DCs sandwiching an SD70MAC for power.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring an old SCL install from the mid-70s or so that's still mostly original. It appears that not too long after it was installed, one of the lights on the far signal got struck and replaced with the current Safetran 8 inch light in the late-70s, though the crossing remained practically unchanged for several decades after. In fact, it appears that the only other major change here occurred sometime within the past two years, when CSX replaced the original WCH gate mech on the far signal with the current Siemens one.
Thankfully though, the signal on my side has pretty much remained entirely original, though unfortunately the bell on it is sounding very rough. Wouldn't be too surprised if the bell on this side winds-up dying soon-ish, but either way, I'm certainly glad to have been able to record this nice classic crossing.