Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-12-22*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights.

On the morning of December 12th, I got on up and got out because I wanted to see about recording this crossing while the lighting was still decent on the north side of it. On my way out, I heard a northbound of some kind meeting I025 at the siding on the west side of LaGrange. As such, I quickly set-up here, documented the crossing, and waited. About 5 minutes after I finished documenting the signals, I025 came through with a pair of ES44AHs on the head-end and an ET44AH as the mid-train DPU. Not the most interesting lash-up out there, but I025 also ain't a train I usually see all that oftenly up in my area (as it usually comes through rather late), so it's nice to see still, IMHO. Of note is the track geometry car right behind the leading locomotives as well.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring the southernmost gateless crossing on the Lineville Sub, as well as being the only gateless crossing along the line in Georgia. It appears that originally, there was an old ACL install here. However, in the 1970s, the closer signal had at least the lights on it replaced with the current set of 8 inch lights by the SCL. I'm not entirely sure if the entire signal was replaced or not, but, based on the base, I suspect the mast on the closer signal was replaced at a later point, most likely in the 90s by CSX. In the 1990s for certain, however, the farther signal was replaced entirely by CSX, giving this crossing a 12x24 inch signal and an 8 inch signal. Since then, no major changes appear to have occured to this crossing, thankfully.
Despite the upgrades to this crossing over the years, these signals have thankfully remained gateless and bell-less. The crossing is one of four remaining bell-less installs on the Lineville Sub, and is the only one to retain 8 inch lights, which is why I decided to head here first and set-up on this side for it. This is also now the only gateless crossing in LaGrange, as the one on the AWP Sub appears to have very recently been upgraded to gated signals.
Also, as a bit of a fun little parallel, both of the remaining ex-ACL mainlines in Alabama (the CSX Lineville Sub and the CSX Dothan Sub) enter Georgia and have a remaining gateless install near the Alabama state line. At both gateless crossings, one signal (on the southern side of both crossings) has three pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, while the other features two pairs of 8 inch lights. Of course, there are some differences, like the fact that the one on the Dothan Sub features an old WRRS signal/lights and two bells, while this one has all Safetran lights and no bells, but it is kind of amusing to notice, IMHO.

*originally recorded on 8-8-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the far left: 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the near left: 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the far right: 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the near right: 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After documenting the new gate lights at Jenkins Street, I continued on east over to this crossing to document the new signals here. Unfortunately, just as I was stepping out of my car, I heard a northbound train blowing the horn for a crossing just to my east, so I quickly grabbed my tripod. Thankfully, I was able to get my camera set-up just before the crossing activated, and here we get to see my fifth train of the day: a northbound CSX intermodal train with a CM44AC leading an ES40DC for power.

Well this crossing certainly looks quite a bit different from when I last recorded it, eh? Back in 2023, CSX upgraded this crossing, and sadly replaced the old bell-less and gateless signals here with the current sextuplet of gated ones, meaning there are now no more gateless crossings in LaGrange, along with there now no longer being any gateless crossings on the Lineville Sub in Georgia. Since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing, unsurprisingly. I'm definitely quite glad I got to film the old signals here when I did, especially since one of them still had all 8 inch lights at the time that I filmed it. I will admit, it's definitely a bit amusing to see that this crossing went from having literally no bells to have six at it, which definitely seems a bit overkill for such a small crossing. At least the sidewalks have gates now, I suppose. I think this crossing now also has the most bells I've recorded at any one crossing, TBH. I may try to get back here at some point for a better video of this crossing.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/G-Q/LaGrange/Park/