Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 12-7-23*

Signal on the left: 1.5 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 Federal Signal 12x20 inch light with a WCH 2nd Generation LED, and a General Signals Type 0 electronic bell.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs.

After CSX L406 came through, I went over to the RJ Corman Memphis Line to see if I could get this crossing recorded. Thankfully, not too long after I arrived, I heard a train horn to my west and spotted a very distant eastbound RJ Corman train approaching. After a bit of waiting, I was able to film this eastbound RJ Corman trail rolling through the crossing on its way into Bowling Green, with a GP38-2 leading a GP38-3 for power.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring a neat pair of older gateless signals at it. I suspect these signals are an RJ Corman install from the early to mid-90s,as the masts are reused Safetran ones from the early-70s. The WCH light heads and bell here are likely original to when these signals were installed, though it appears the left-rear light on the far signal was replaced at some point by the current reused Federal Signal 12x20. In the late-2000s/early-2010s, the lights here were upgraded to LED. Since then, however, thankfully nothing has changed at this crossing.
Of course, the star of the show here is the early GS electronic bell here, often called a "prototype" by railfans. These were actually the earliest production model of bell by General Signals, and were only made from 1992 to about 1994 or 1995, IIRC, so the "prototype" moniker doesn't entirely fit. Personally, I'm taking to calling them the "Type 0", as it fits them into the "type" system used to distinguish the three tones standard GS e-bells were produced with over the years without having to bump all of those long-established "types" up by one. Plus, in programming (IIRC), 0 is used to point to the first item in a list or set.
As these bells were a very early e-bell, used years before most railroads began to use e-bells, they are quite rare to find, I believe most of the ones you'll see are on the (former) KCS trackage KCS owned at the time, along with very few scattered about on the UP. I believe RJC was the only railroad that ever used these in the southeastern US, as a few can/could be found on their trackage in Kentucky. As a result of how rare these e-bells are as well, this was the first one of these I'd ever seen, or heard, in person, so I'm glad I finally got to film one of these for myself, even if EthantheRailfanner had already filmed this one a few years ago.
The crossing does also need some TLC to it though. Many of the LEDs here have had the arrays pop out of the gaskets, meaning they aren't aimed into the lenses as they should be, including all of the ones facing my camera. The crossbuck on the closer signal is also quite well bleached & in dire need of replacement, having faded almost completely white, if it weren't for the white reflective sheeting used as the background having cracked and browned a bit over the years. Still, this is a crossing I'm very glad to have been able to get, as I hadn't recorded one of these early and rare e-bells before. Hopefully it'll remain here for many more years to come.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Kentucky/A-K/ ... /Morehead/