Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-27-24*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WABCO 8 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WABCO 8 inch lights, a WCH mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After getting Amtrak 89, I decided to head-up to this crossing for L640. I didn't have to wait too long, as they soon started making their way towards the yard, followed by a quickly-approaching I032. Not too long after I got set-up here, CSX L640 came rolling through with a pair of ES40DCs for power. Not too long after he cleared, however, the relatively short (with all single-stacks and ToFC, interestingly enough) CSX I032 rolled through the crossing with an ET44AH leading an AC44CW for power. I032 wound-up stopping on the crossing for a little over 20 minutes while getting a crew change (I believe), but, thankfully, they did get moving again before sunset or my camera ran out of battery. Either way, after this, I hit the road for Fayetteville, NC, to meet back-up with EthantheRailfanner at our hotel for the next few nights, so these were my seventh and eighth (and final) trains of the day.

This crossing is another nice one, featuring a pair of early-80s SCL signals, i believe. It seems that in the 90s (though possibly later-on in the 80s, or even in the 80s and 90s), CSX replaced the bells here with the current WCH mechanical bells. Then, sometime between 2012 and 2019, CSX replaced both WABCO Model 75 gate mechanisms with the current ones. Strangely, rather than using a new Siemens S60 like they did with the closer signal, the far signal had its gate mech replaced with a reused Safetran one from the late-70s. I suppose it's possible the far signal had its gate mech replaced first, followed by the closer one being replaced sometime between 2015 and 2017, though I can't say for certain.
Either way, this is definitely a nice crossing to end the day off with, even if I hadn't originally planned to get it, and I'm glad I got to record both another mechanical bell pair and some more WABCO 8 inch lights as well. If the signals here seem a bit familiar, it's probably because MobileRailSpotterRxR filmed this crossing back in 2019 on a visit to Florence. Hopefully these signals remain here for many more years to come, but, either way, at least I have a video of them now.