Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 12-7-23*

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

On the morning of December 7th, despite it still being below freezing out, I once again got up and got on out the door to see what CSX was running on the Mainline Sub. On my way north, I heard a southbound train call the signal at South End Gallatin, so I quickly hopped off of TN 386 and made my way over to this crossing. After a few minutes of waiting, this southbound autorack train came through with an AC44CW leading an ES44AH for power.

This crossing is a pretty decent one, though I'd forgotten that the neat signal with two e-bells on it was replaced a few years back. It appears that this crossing originally had a late-90s CSX install at it, but, in the mid-2000s, the far signal was replaced with a newer one, which featured a Safetran Type 2 e-bell. Then, sometime between 2008 and 2013, the bell on that signal died, and CSX chose to replace it with a side-mounted NEG e-bell, leaving the dead Safetran Type 2 in place atop the mast, though by 2018 the newer e-bell here had gone dead as well, per EthantheRailfanner's video of the crossing from then. Sadly, in late-2018/early-2019, the far signal was replaced once again, this time with the current signal that features a reused Invensys Rail gate mech at it. Since then, the only change of note here appears to have occurred sometime between 2019 and 2021, when CSX remounted the lights on the far signal to be off-centered and further away from the road.
Even if the most interesting thing about this crossing is now gone, it still retains some things of interest. As mentioned above, the lights on the far signal are off-centered, and the crossing also featured a mix of LEDs and incandescents, which you don't see too often. The closer signal also appears to still feature its original diagonally-striped gate arm, along with retaining a RECO incandescent gate light, which are also very nice to see.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/G-Q ... in/Harris/