Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 2-24-22*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of WABCO 8 inch lights, 1 Safetran 8 inch light, 1 WRRS 8 inch light, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 pair of WCH 8 inch lights, a dying Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO gate lights, and a RECO LED gate light.

On February 24th, I got up and went out to the A Line to do some railfanning. I decided to head south towards Moncks Corner, but, on my way down, I saw I038 heading north. As such, I quickly turned around and started chasing it back north. Tried to beat it to St. Stephen, but wasn't successful in doing so, so I chased it on up to Lake City instead. Here we see I038 flying through with a pair of YN2 AC44CWs for power!

This crossing is a rather nice one, and features the last mechanical bell in the downtown area of Lake City. The signals here appear to have been installed by the SCL back in the late-70s, though, at some point (assuming they aren't original), most of the lights here were replaced with other brands of 8 inch light, and I'm assuming most of them were re-used at the time. The far signal got three pairs of WABCO 8 inch lights and a re-used WRRS 8 inch light, while the closer signal just had its rear pair of lights replaced with WCH 8 inch lights.
I can say for certain though, in the 1990s, CSX replaced the original gate mechanism on the far signal with the current one. Then, sometime between 2019 and 2021, the bell on the far signal was replaced with the current NEG e-bell.
Thankfully though, the closer signal still remains largely original and even still features what I believe is its original Safetran mechanical bell. Sadly, the Safetran bell here does sound quite rough and I suspect it's on its way out. Hopefully CSX fixes it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's replaced with another NEG e-bell before too long. Thankfully, while this is the last mechanical bell around downtown Lake City, I'm aware of at least two other crossings in town with mechanical bells, one of which Elliot recorded back in December.
Also, the large amount of signage directly adjacent to the crossing made it hard to get a good angle here, and the angle I did get has the gate mech on the closer signal getting mostly blocked by the low ground clearance sign. Admittedly, one thing I didn't notice until just now as well is that the closer signal still features some incandescent gate lights.