Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-13-22*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a dying WCH mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO gate lights.

On February 13th, I got on up and got out to do some more railfanning on the Lineville Sub. Went out to this crossing first, as I wanted to get it while the lighting would still be decent on this side. A little bit after I got here, I thought I heard a distant train horn, so I started recording. A little bit later, this northbound intermodal train came through with a pair of BNSF ES44C4s for power, the same pair I'd actually seen yesterday.

This crossing is a rather nice one, featuring what appears to have originally been an SCL install from the early to mid-70s, most likely with the mast lights originally having been a mix of FS and Safetran 8 inch lights. It appears that, a bit unusually, later-on in the 70s, the cantilever had its gate mech replaced with a late-70s Safetran one, and the right-hand signal had its gate mast replaced. It appears at least the gate mech and 5 inch adapter for the bell were re-used (not sure if the bell would've been, or if it was replaced at the time with the current WCH bell with a 4 inch base).
In the early 2000s, it appears that CSX replaced all of the mast lights here with the current Safetran 12x24 inch lights. Interestingly enough, the gateless mast here features a pair of 90s Safetran 12x24s, and I will admit I'm not entirely sure if they got re-used here in the early 2000s, or were actually installed in the 90s. Either way, sometime prior to 2013, the bell on the cantilever was replaced with the current NEG e-bell, with no major changes to this crossing since then.
Chose to set-up at this angle, mainly because I wanted to be on this side of the crossing. However, due the large utility pole blocking the right-hand signal (which is why there's an extra mast here), setting up on the other side of the street would've blocked the right-hand signal's gate mast. Kinda surprised that the SCL didn't try to install a cantilever on this side, TBH, but maybe the overhead lines had something to do with that. Either way, it's definitely a neat set-up. The right-hand signal also still features a full set of incandescent gate lights, which is great to see as well.
Unfortunately, as you can hear, the WCH mechanical bell here is in dire need of some TLC. The bell is pretty obviously dying, and while it seems to ring fine at first (if fairly clicky as it rings), the hammer doesn't seem to properly strike the gong once the gates start to lower, and it begins to click a lot more than it actually rings. Hopefully CSX fixes the bell here rather than replacing it, but I personally wouldn't be too surprised if this crossing gets another e-bell at it before too long.

*originally recorded on 8-9-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, 2 pairs of Federal Signal 12x20 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a dying WCH mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I caught the southbound mixed freight in West Point, I decided to hop on US 29 and head back up to LaGrange to see if I could get at least one more train on the Lineville Sub on this day. Unfortunately, nothing came through before sunset, but, after a little while of waiting (and after it got dark), I was eventually able to get my fourth and final train of the day here: a southbound CSX intermodal with a CM44AC leading an ET44AH for power.

As you can see, since I last filmed this crossing back in 2022, CSX sadly replaced the incandescent RECO gate lights on the signal with the mechanical bell with the current NEG LED gate lights. Definitely a bit of a shame, though I suppose it isn't too unexpected for CSX. Thankfully, the older Harmon cantilever here still remains with its original FS 12x20 inch overhead lights, and all of the lights on this crossing are still incandescent as well. Amazingly, the dying WCH mechanical bell is still hanging-on here, and even still works, though it does sound noticeably worse than it did back in 2022. I do still hope CSX will give it some TLC, but I suspect they're just waiting for it to eventually die so they can replace it with an NEG e-bell. Either way, I'm glad I was able to get another video of the rather neat set-up here on this trip, even if it was after dark.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/G-Q/ ... e/Jenkins/