Sunset Avenue (US 64 Business), Rocky Mount, NC

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 7-31-24*

Signal on the left: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the far right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the near right: a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell.
This crossing is located in a quiet zone. Trains do not usually blow their horns at this crossing.

As the Silver Star was approaching Rocky Mount, I decided to go over to this crossing to record it. When the train pulled into the station south of here, it was apparently close enough to cause the signals up to this crossing to time-out, so I was able to get that recorded.
After a few minutes of dwell time at the station, the Amtrak Silver Star began to depart to continue its journey north to New York City. Soon after, I was able to get my second train of the day: AMTK 92 accelerating out of Rocky Mount with a pair of ALC-42s for power.

This crossing is a pretty nice one, featuring a neat one-way set-up at it. Originally, there appears to have been an old ACL install here from the 1950s, though, in the 1980s, CSX replaced the right-hand gated signal here with a WCH one. Then, in the late-90s (or possibly the early 2000s), CSX replaced the bell on the left-hand gated signal with a GS e-bell. Then in the 2000s as well, the bell on the off-side bell-only signal here was replaced with a GS Type 2. Sometime between 2007 and 2012, the old ACL left-han gated signal was replaced by the current signal, which was originally incandescent. Sometime between 2016 and 2018, the front lights here were upgraded to LED, though the rear lights remained incandescent for at least a year longer. Between 2019 and 2021 however, a few more changes here would occur, presumably all at about the same time. The right-hand gated signal had its gate mech replaced, presumably with a new Siemens one, along with the right-rear light being replaced by a Safetran 12x24 inch light. The rear lights on both signals were also given an LED upgrade. Finally, sometime after 2022, the right-hand gated signal here was replaced entirely by the current one.
Thankfully, despite all of these upgrades, the old bell-only ACL mast here still remains. Not entirely sure why the ACL did these one-way setups this way, typically when offside signals like this are used on one-way crossings, they have lights mounted to them instead of/in addition to a bell. I can't say I've seen this done outside of Rocky Mount either, though a crossing on two different lines next to an interlocking with those lines up in the midwest somewhere once had bell-only signals protecting anyone between the tracks. There used to be four of these bell-only signals in downtown Rocky Mount, but, at some point, the southernmost of these had its bell-only signal disappear and CSX ain't ever seen a need to replace it. Either way, these are definitely neat set-ups, and I'm glad I got this one recorded.
As a side note, for whatever reason, the NEG e-bell here is missing the lower ring on its base. Strangely, it seems it may have been installed like this.