Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-27-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1.5 pairs of Safetran 8 inch lights, 1 Federal Signal 8 inch light, a sick NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On the morning of July 27th, I got on up, got checked-out from the hotel, and made my way over to the CSX Charleston Sub, first setting-up at this crossing in Strawberry. After a little bit of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: CSX I038 with an ES40DC leading CSX 1899, the Pere Marquette heritage unit (an ES44AH), for power! Definitely quite the nice welcome back to the A Line, even if CSX 1899 wasn't leading. The ES40DC also had a damaged numberboard, even if you couldn't really see it in this video.

This crossing is a rather nice one, and one I'd been wanting to record since I first documented it back in 2022. The signals here are an SCL install from the mid-1970s, though, assuming it isn't original, it appears the front-left light on the closer signal was replaced by a Federal Signal 8 inch light. Then, in the mid-90s, CSX replaced the lights on the far signal with the current Safetran 12x24 inch lights. Finally, sometime between 2013 and 2015, the original Safetran mechanical bell on the closer signal was replaced by the current NEG e-bell. Since then, thankfully, no major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing.
I'm glad to see both of these signals are still fairly original, with the closer one still being 8 inch, the far one retaining its original 1st Gen Safetran mechanical bell, and both still using their original gate mechanisms. Unfortunately, both bells here do sound like they're on their way out. The Safetran mechanical bell here sounds like it may have a cracked gong (but does still sound fairly healthy otherwise) while the NEG e-bell here definitely sounds rather sick and scratchy. Hopefully CSX fixes the Safetran here, but, either way, I'm definitely glad I got to record this crossing when I did.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/South_Carolin ... s_Gardens/