Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-1-23*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, a Safetran Type 3 electronic bell, an Invensys Rail gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching the southbound NS grain(?) train, I went down to this crossing to see about recording it next. After another short period of waiting, I was able to get this southbound NS oil/ethanol train coming through, with an NS ET44AC leading a UP AC45CCTE, a CSX ES44AH, and a UP AC44CWCTE for power. Not the most interesting lash-up out there, though certainly colorful and the CSX engine on NS tracks is definitely unusual, but it is always nice to see a unit ethanol/oil train like this.

This crossing is another nice one, which also has the maintenance split between NS and CSX. It appears that both railroads each installed a signal here back in the early to mid-1990s, but, sometime between 2011 and 2013, NS replaced their signal with the current one. The signals here then remained unchanged until early-2022, when CSX upgraded their signal here to LED. Since then, however, there have thankfully been no major changes to this crossing, and the WCH mechanical bell here still sounds rather nice and healthy. NS's signal also has the bell ring when the gates rise still, which is rather nice to see.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Georgia/A-F/Dalton/McFarland/