Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-13-22*

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

After I caught Q203, I went and got the last three signalized crossings on the Lineville Sub documented for the site. Once I finished-up this one, I decided to wait here for a train. After about 3 hours of waiting, this northbound mixed freight came rolling through with a YN3 ES44AH leading a YN2 AC44CW on the head-end and a YN3b ET44AH as the mid-train DPU. This would be my last train of the day.

This crossing is the southernmost signalized crossing on the CSX Lineville Subdivision, and it's honestly a rather great one. The signals here are a pair of early WCH signals installed by the SCL back in the mid to late-70s, and are almost entirely original. I'm not sure if the 1st Gen Safetran bell here is original or not, though it was almost certainly re-used from somewhere else (not sure if it was an older signal at this crossing, or a signal at another crossing elsewhere). However, if it isn't original, then it's pretty much the only major change to this crossing since it was installed.
Amazingly enough, this crossing also features another pair of early WCH gate mechs, of the same design that's used over at Murphy and Callaway Avenues in LaGrange. It was nice to be able to film another pair of these, especially at a crossing with the original lights and at least one original bell. The far signal also still retains an incandescent gate light, which is rather nice to see.
Unfortunately, the bells here do need some work. The Safetran bell here is completely dead, which means that there aren't any working mechanical bell pairs left on the Lineville Sub, at least in Georgia (dunno if the one pair in Pelham, AL, still has both WCH mechanical bells functioning or not). The WCH mechanical bell on the far signal does still sound fairly decent, though it does struggle a bit when the gate mechs begin to lower. The tip of the gate arm is also noticeably crunched, no idea how that happened. The closer gate mech also makes a pretty loud noise when it begins to lower, which I doubt is an indicator of anything good. Hopefully CSX repairs the equipment here, and the crossing gets to remain completely unchanged for years to come otherwise. Either way, I'm definitely quite glad I was able to record this crossing, and now I've recorded both the northernmost and southernmost signalized crossings on the Lineville Sub.