Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-12-22*

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

After catching the third southbound intermodal train, I decided to head over to this crossing and wait. After about an hour of waiting, what was my best catch of the day came through: a southbound grain train with a low-numbered YN2 AC44CW leading a YN3b ET44AH! Always nice to see a double-digit AC44 leading, especially one with such a low number and still in YN2 as well!

This crossing is another great one, featuring another early WCH install put-up by the SCL in the late-mid-70s, though it's had a fair number of changes to it over the years. It appears that at some point, I'm guessing not too long after it was installed, the left-rear light struck and replaced with a re-used RACO 8 inch light. In the 1980s, the SBD replaced the gate mech on the closer signal with the current Safetran one (though it's entirely possible this was done in the early 90s by CSX). Later on in the 80s, or in the 90s, CSX replaced the closer signal's bell with the current WCH mechanical bell. Then, in the late-90s/2000s, the bell on the far signal also died and was replaced with a General Signals e-bell. This bell lasted for a few years, I'm guessing around 10, but then, between 2008 and 2013, it too must've died and was replaced by the current NEG e-bell.
Since then, however, no major changes appear to have occurred to these signals, thankfully. It's nice to see these guys are fully 8 inch still, which a good number of the crossings on this part of the Lineville Sub still are. Also quite nice to see is that, like with Murphy Avenue, the far signal still retains its original early WCH gate mech, another "Style 2" one like the ones at that crossing. The far signal also has an old fiberglass gate arm as well, which appears to have been only partially restriped sometime between 2013 and 2019. The tip of the gate arm still features the original diagonal striping, though said striping is very heavily faded and not all that visible. The tip section of the gate arm itself is pretty well worn-out as well, as that section is literally beginning to fall apart. Might be worth it for CSX to replace that part, TBH.

*originally recorded on 8-10-25*

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

After catching the northbound intermodal train in Standing Rock, we hopped back across the state line over to LaGrange again to see if we could try to get at least one more train on this day before heading back home to Huntsville. After a little while of waiting at this crossing, I was finally able to catch my ninth, and final, train on August 10th: a northbound empty CSX coal train with an ES44AH leading an AC44CW on the head-end, and an ES40DC working as the train's DPU.
After this, we went over to Truitt Avenue (which is still unchanged from when I visited back in 2022, thankfully) to try and record at least one more train before heading home. Unfortunately, nothing else came through on the Lineville Sub before it got too dark to record anything, so we just snagged some supper and made the 3.5 hour drive back to Huntsville for the night.

Sadly, sometime after I recorded this crossing back in 2022, CSX replaced the remaining (rare) early WCH gate mech on the closer signal with the current Siemens one. As a result of this replacement, it appears they chose to go ahead and replace the gate arm on the closer signal here as well, replacing all of the gate lights on the closer signal with a set of NEG LED gate lights in the process. Thankfully, nothing else has changed to these classic 8 inch signals, which is nice to see. I'm glad to see that all of the 8 inch lights are still here, along with the 2nd Gen WCH mechanical bell on the far side. Certainly not a bad crossing to end this trip off with regardless, IMHO.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/G-Q/ ... /Callaway/