Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 8-1-24*

Signal on the left: 3.5 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 1 Safetran 12x24 inch light with a Leotek EV Series LED, 1 pair of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a WCH mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, RECO LED gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.
Signal on the right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 3 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 1 pair of US&S 12x20 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a WABCO mechanical bell, a US&S Model 75 gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

On the morning of August 1st, EthantheRailfanner and I got on up and got checked out of the hotel to see about getting as many crossings on the CSX Norlina Subdivision recorded as we could. I got out here just after 5:30 AM, and began to wait. Nearly 2 hours later, a bit before 7:30 AM, I was able to get what I was after: CSX L617 heading north with a GP40-2 leading a GP38-2 for power.

This crossing is a very nice one, and being almost right next to my hotel, was the one I picked to start my chase with. It appears that originally, the signals here were installed by the early-SBD back in the 1980s, though later on in that decade or sometime in the early-90s, CSX replaced both cantilevers here with the current ones, along with replacing the relay case here with the current one it seems. Then, in the mid-90s, CSX replaced the gate mechanism on the far signal with the current Safetran one, and also replaced the bell with the current WCH mechanical bell. After that, in the late-90s, CSX replaced most of the front mast lights on the cantilevers with the current Safetran 12x24s. The crossing then remained relatively untouched for about two decades, but finally, sometime between 2019 and 2021, CSX upgraded this crossing to LED.
Thankfully, nothing else seems to have changed since, which is nice to see. Both mechanical bells here still sound nice and healthy, especially the WABCO bell here, which was what I mainly was going to this crossing for. I believe this is the first time I've filmed a WABCO bell on a crossing paired-up with another mechanical bell that wasn't another WABCO. It's also nice to see that the closer signal still retains a diagonally-striped gate arm, as those are steadily getting rarer these days it seems.

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