Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-13-22*

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

As Q601 was waiting to head south towards Manchester and Waycross, I hopped on over to this crossing once the northbound mixed freight they were meeting passed. Here we see Q601 continuing on their journey to Waycross with a pair of ES44AHs on the head end, and another ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring an almost-original late-70s SCL install. Up until at least 2015, this crossing was pretty much entirely original, but sometime between 2015 and 2018, the Safetran bell on the far signal died and was replaced with the current NEG e-bell. Thankfully, the closer Safetran mechanical bell is still around and still sounds fairly decent, but, unfortunately, as you can see, it noticeably struggles when the gates start to lower, so I suspect it's beginning to be on its way out. Hopefully CSX gives it some TLC though, and keeps it around longer.
That being said, both signals here are still fully 8 inch, which is great to see. The closer signal also still features a full set of incandescent gate lights and a fiberglass gate arm, though the arm was restriped sometime between 2018 and 2019. Hopefully this great little crossing remains unchanged for a good while, but, either way, I'm certainly glad I got it recorded when I did. These late-70s Safetran installs, especially ones like this from the SCL, are always great to see, IMHO.

*originally recorded on 8-10-25*

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

After documenting the upgrade at Callaway Church Road, I heard a southbound train approaching on the Lineville Sub, so I decided to hop over to this crossing to rerecord it. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch my second train of the day: CSX M209 with a lone CM44AC pulling on the head-end and another CM44AC and an ES44AH working as the mid-train DPUs. For whatever reason, M209 had a cut of intermodal on the head-end on this day.

It appears that sometime after I last filmed this crossing back in 2022, CSX replaced the closer signal's gate arm, and, as a result, all of the RECO incandescent gate lights on it were sadly replaced with the current NEG LEDs. Thankfully, nothing else has changed to these classic late-70s SCL signals, which is great to see. Amazingly, even the dying Safetran mechanical bell is managing to hang-on here, though it does sound a bit worse than it did back in 2022. Also, is it just me, or did the crossing "stutter" just after starting?

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