Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 7-31-24*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a dying WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I caught Amtrak 79 in Selma, I knew I'd be able to catch M401 on the A Line somewhere. However, as I didn't think I'd be able to beat the train up to Lucama, I decided to head down to this crossing in Godwin to wait on it. After about an hour of waiting, I was able to catch my eleventh and final train of the day: CSX M401 with an ES44AH leading a CM44AC for power.
This would also be my last train on the A Line on this trip, as I'd spend the rest of this trip over on the S Line. After I packed-up my camera here, I hit the road and met-up with EthantheRailfanner at our hotel on the north side of the Raleigh area for the night, as we had plans for the CSX Norlina Sub the following morning.

This crossing's honestly a pretty nice one to end off my A Line portion of the trip with, featuring a nice late-70s SCL install at it. In the 1980s or the 1990s, CSX replaced the bell on the far signal with the current WCH mechanical bell. Then, in the 2000s, CSX replaced the bell on the closer signal with the current GS Type 2 e-bell. The signals remained relatively unchanged for a bit, but then, sometime between 2007 and 2009, CSX upgraded the backgrounds on the lights here from 20 inch ones to the current 24 inch ones. Finally, presumably sometime between 2016 and 2018, CSX upgraded this crossing to LED.
Thankfully, since then, no further major changes appear to have occurred to this crossing. Sadly, the WCH mechanical bell here appears to be on its way out, given how rough it sounds. Hopefully CSX gives it a needed tune-up, but it's nice to see that these old SCL signals still stand, especially since they have their original late-70s Safetran gate mechs still, along with their original older Safetran 12 inch light heads. I think these might actually be the last 70s-style Safetran 12 inch lights on the CSX South End Sub, though Ethan can definitely correct me on that. All in all, this was definitely a good crossing to end another very successful day, and the A Line as a whole for this trip, off with.