State Avenue #3, Indianapolis, IN
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 12:54 pm
*originally recorded on 11-21-23*
Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, 1 pair of Safetran 8 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, a WRRS gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
While waiting for M361, I heard over the scanner that CSX Y135 was gonna be following them out to work some customers. As such, after M361 passed and I was able to take a bathroom break, I returned to this crossing with a few minutes to spare before Y135 came through. Here we see CSX Y135 following M361 east, with a lone GP40-3 for power.
After this, I hit the road to begin my 7.5 hour journey back to Huntsville, and I was able to get home before it got too late.
This crossing is another rather nice one, featuring another old PRR install that I believe dates back to the 1950s or 60s. It appears that the closer signal, at least, originally had a Teardrop bell on top of it as well, as there appears to be an empty Teardrop base on top of the mast of the WRRS cantilever here. I'm not sure if this was intentionally removed without a direct replacement or if it was stolen at some point, however. Either way, in either the 80s or 90s, it appears that Conrail replaced all of the lights here with Safetran 8 inch lights. In the mid-2000s, the signal on the far side was replaced by CSX with the current mast signal, but they chose to reuse the Safetran 8 inch lights onto the newer signal. Then, sometime between 2009 and 2011, CSX chose to install a new cantilever on the far side of the crossing, which is the one currently seen over there, and just simply removed the front lights from the mast signal when converting that into the gate mast for the cantilever, but thankfully without replacing the 8 inch rear lights. Since then, the only change to have occurred here was the replacement of the Safetran Type 2 e-bell on the far signal with the current NEG e-bell sometime between 2016 and 2017, with the crossing thankfully remaining largely unchanged since.
The classic WRRS cantilever on this side is definitely rather nice to see, especially since it still retains all Safetran 8 inch lights and its original WRRS gate mech. I'm quite glad I was able to film three different crossings on this day with WRRS gate mechs, especially since they don't really exist in my area. The Safetran 8 inch lights and Dialight Ball LEDs on the far signal are also quite nice to see, I always quite like the CSX signals with Dialight Ball LEDs on them. All in all, this is definitely a great little crossing, and one I'm absolutely glad I was able to shoot. Hopefully CSX leaves these signals alone for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm absolutely glad I was able to shoot these when I did.