Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 8-2-24*

Northbound entry signal: 3 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gatelights.
Southbound exit signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Northbound exit signal: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Southbound entry signal: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Dialight Ball LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After I shot the Amtrak Silver Star, I saw that there was something lined off of the NS Danville District and onto the S Line, so went on over to this crossing, as I had a feeling 350 was coming. Sure enough, it was, and here I was able to get my second train of the day: NS 350 with a trio of AC44C6Ms for power.
Unfortunately, this was the spot where I broke my left elbow. A lady in a black car had pulled-up to the stop line, and I was standing behind her car snagging some pictures. Unfortunately, she decided to back-up without looking first, and wound-up backing into me as a result. At first I thought I was fine (as you can hear in the video), but I must've landed harder on my left arm than I thought. At least the slightly amusing audio of me getting hit by a car can be heard in the video though, I suppose, lol.

After catching 350, I went back over to downtown Cary to document an upgrade before returning back over to this crossing to catch the Amtrak Carolinian, since I knew that was approaching. After at least about half an hour of waiting, I was able to get my third train of the day: Amtrak 80 with a P42DC for power and a friendly crew aboard who gave a horn salute as they passed.

This crossing is a very nice one, featuring what appears to have originally been a late-70s SCL install at it. In the early-90s, I believe, it appears the northbound cantilever here had its gate mast replaced with the current one, though the bell (and maybe the lights?) were reused onto the new gate mast. Then, in the mid-2000s, quite a big upgrade here occurred, when CSX upgraded this crossing to quad-gates. As a result, the two exit signals here were installed, with the southbound one getting a General Signals e-bell on it as well for some reason. At the same time, the cantilever signals had their lights upgraded to LED, with the current Safetran 12x24 inch lights being installed on them as well. Admittedly, I'm not sure if the ones on the overhead replaced anything or not. Either way, the crossing remained largely unchanged for another decade after, however, sometime between 2017 and 2018, the GS e-bell here was replaced by the current NEG e-bell.
Thankfully, since then, this crossing has remained largely unchanged. Thankfully, both cantilevers here still retain their original SCL-era Safetran mechanical bells, which are still nicely painted black. The northbound exit signal here also still retains a diagonally-striped gate arm, which is definitely rather neat to see. Hopefully this crossing remains largely unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I was able to get it recorded when I did.