Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-27-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Federal Signal 8 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 8 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I caught M491, I went on up to this crossing for my next train on the A Line. After a couple more hours of waiting, I was able to get my fifth train of the day: CSX M401 with an ES44AH leading an ET44AH for power.

This crossing is another nice one, featuring a late-70s SCL WCH install, which is still mostly original as well. The only major change here occurred sometime between 2013 and 2022 when the original WCH mechanical bell on the far signal was replaced by the current NEG e-bell. Based on the physical condition of the bell, I'm willing to bet it was probably in the mid-2010s this replacement occurred. Thankfully, either way, no major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing since then, which is rather nice to see.
Interestingly, the far signal features a set of FS 8 inch lights on it, which is a bit unusual given the age of these signals. Not sure if they were reused from elsewhere or if they were some new old stock equipment the SCL had on-hand at the time, but they do appear to be original to that signal. Interestingly, this isn't the only 70s WCH install in this area with them either, one of the other SCL-era crossings in Lane features a set of of them on an install as well, which I believe was from about this same timeframe.