Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 12-18-21*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a GRS/WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light, an NEG electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching F756 over on the S Line, I made my way over the CSX Charleston Sub (part of the A Line) to do some more railfanning. Eventually, after a few hours of waiting (and the sun unfortunately moving to the other side of the tracks), this northbound mixed freight came through with an ET44AH on the head-end and another ET44AH working as the mid-DPU.

This crossing is a pretty neat install, featuring an older pair of SCL signals that have had a few different upgrades and modernizations over the years. It appears that the far signal is mostly original, save for the bell, which is rather nice to see. It also features what I believe is the last GRS/WRRS gate mech on the Charleston Sub.
However, IMHO, the best thing about this crossing (and why I chose to set-up here) is the closer cantilever, which is a Walpar cantilever with an absolutely massive arm on it. No idea why the SCL installed this one here, but I wanted to see it and film it, so I chose to stay right over here to do so. Unfortunately, the video didn't turn out the best because the sun was on the wrong side, but I plan to come back and fix that in the near-ish future. But still, a slightly poor video is better than no video at all, IMHO, so I'm glad I was able to get it.

*originally recorded on 2-26-22*

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of WRRS 8 inch lights, a Safetran Type 2 electronic bell, a GRS/WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4.5 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching Amtrak 90, I returned to this crossing as I wanted to get a better video of it. After about an hour and a half of waiting, this northbound CSX mixed freight came through with a YN3 ES40DC leading a YN2 Dash-8 and a YN3 GP40-2. I've actually seen this Dash-8 a few years back before, trailing on a mixed freight up in New Jersey when I visited back in 2017, so it's interesting to see that it still retains the unusual font for the numbers on the sides of the cab.

Thankfully, I was able to get a much better video on this day, with the crossing not being heavily backlit and the far signal's lower half being mostly visible prior to the train coming. It appears that sometime not too long before I came here to get another video, CSX replaced the WCH gate mechanism here on the closer signal with a brand new Siemens gate mechanism. At the time I was here, CSX had actually left the old WCH gate mech laying on the ground between the tracks, which you can easily see in the video. Either way, I'm glad I was able to get another video of this very large Walpar cantilever, and one that shows it in better lighting conditions.