Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-29-24*

Signal on the far left: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a GE electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the far right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the near left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the near right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a GE electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching Amtrak 90 in Pembroke, I made my way back to Fayetteville for a few more crossings. As it was still fairly wet and nothing seemed to be too close (outside of maybe a local freight), I went off and snagged myself some lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch, I went back over to this crossing, where I found-out that CSX had a southbound grain train coming per a signal maintainer. After he left, I got set-up and documented the signals. A little while later, this southbound grain train came rolling through with a CM44AC leading an ES44AH for power.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, even if it's fairly modern. Originally, there was what appears to have been a pair of gated cantilevers here that were installed by the SCL back in the mid to late-70s, which were still fully original it appears. However, sometime between 2007 and 2012, CSX upgraded this crossing to quad-gates, replacing the cantilevers with the current set of signals. Since then, however, nothing major appears to have changed to this crossing, thankfully. The pair of Dialight Ball LEDs on the far entrance signal appear to be original to the install, strangely enough.
Quad-gate installs like this seem to be something North Carolina likes to have on a few of the lines in their state, I've noticed. I can't entirely say for certain, but I believe it may be related to how much Amtrak uses a particular line, as the only other lines with lots of quad-gates on them are the NS ones the Piedmont runs over between Raleigh and Charlotte. Admittedly, I don't mind recording quad-gates, as there ain't exactly been any in my area, at least until recently. The far signal also still retains its original diagonally-striped gate arm, which is nice to see.
Of course, the stars of the show here are easily the pair of GE e-bells, original to these signals and still sounding nice and healthy. There are actually a bunch of these in Fayetteville, surprisingly, though sadly the majority are on the two CSX branch lines in the city. Thankfully, these are not the only ones on the A Line in Fayetteville...