Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 11-21-23*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 pair of RACO 8 inch lights, a WRRS mechanical bell, a WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 WCH 8 inch light, a WCH mechanical bell, a WRRS gate mechanism, and NEG gate lights.

After I caught G228, I was heading towards another crossing on the Indianapolis Line, when I heard that CSX M360 and CSX M361 should be coming through soon on the CSX Indianapolis Sub. As such, I quickly turned south and made my way over to this crossing for those trains. After about half an hour of waiting, I was able to catch CSX M360 going west with an ES40DC leading an ES44AH for power.

This crossing is definitely a great one, and one I'm very glad to have been able to record. Although the CSX Indianapolis Sub is former B&O, it appears that the part running into downtown Indianapolis ran right alongside a former PRR mainline (which has long since been largely ripped-out, it appears), with the PRR, and later Penn Central and Conrail, maintaining the crossings for this part of the line. Unusually, it seems the B&O (and later Chessie System/CSX) and Penn Central (later Conrail) chose to each have their own DOT numbers assigned to the crossings along this stretch, and, as such, the older signals along this part of the line feature two DOT tags, one from the PC/CR and one from the B&O/Chessie. As this is part of the Indianapolis Sub, however, CSX uses the B&O DOT numbers and mileposts for the ENS signs through here.
Anyways, these signals appear to have been originally installed by the PRR back in the 1950s, almost certainly replacing something much older as the closer signal originally featured an RRS bell on it. In the 1960s, it appears the PRR or PC replaced two of the lights on the far signal, with Conrail replacing the rest of the lights here over the 1980s and 90s, it seems. Finally, sometime between 2014 and 2018, CSX replaced the RRS bell here with the current (reused) 1st Gen WCH mechanical bell.
Thankfully, this crossing has retained its classic PRR-era double mast signals, which still retain an even more classic look due to still having all 8 inch lights, a mechanical bell pair, and even its original pair of WRRS gate mechs. Both mechanical bells here sound rather healthy, with the WCH bell ringing at a very fast rate. The closer signal here also still retains a nice older diagonally striped gate arm, complete with a full set of NEG incandescent gate lights still! All in all, this is a very nice crossing, and I'm quite glad I got to record it.