Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 5-21-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Safetran Fading LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with Safetran Fading LEDs, a Safetran mechanical bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching the northbound mixed freight, vtgrxrman and I hopped on up to this crossing to see about getting it recorded. When we got here, we saw the intermediate signal to our north was still lit, so we went ahead and got set-up. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, we were able to get our fourth, and second best, catch of the day: a rather short northbound CN intermodal train flying through with an ex-Citirail ES44AC (still in patched CitiRail paint) leading a CN ET44AC for power! Definitely sweet to finally get one of these (ex-)CitiRail GEVOs leading again, as I literally haven't seen one of these leading since September of 2015 (yes, really!)!

This crossing is another great one, featuring a mid-1970s ICG install at it which would've originally featured 8 inch mast lights and 12x20 inch overhead lights. In the mid-1990s, it appears, the IC replaced the gate mechanism on the far signal with a newer Safetran gate mech. Then, in the 2000s, it appears, CN upgraded the overhead lights here to LED. After that, sometime between 2007 and 2012 (it appears?), CN upgraded the 8 inch mast lights here to LED as well. CN then replaced the mast lights here entirely sometime between 2012 and 2016, upgrading them to the current Safetran 12x24s with GE Uniform Look LEDs. Then, sometime between 2016 and 2020, CN upgraded the backgrounds on the overhead lights here to 24 inch ones and replaced the original Safetran gate mechanism on the closer signal with the current Siemens one. Finally, sometime after 2023, it appears, CN replaced the far signal's gate mech (once again) with the current Siemens gate mech.
Thankfully, despite all of these upgrades, these classic ICG cantilevers still remain in service here, and even still retain their original 1970s Safetran 12 inch overhead light heads (even if they've been modernized). Even better, this crossing still retains its original 1st Gen Safetran mechanical bell, which even rings while the gates are down! Sadly, ringing until the gates rise seems to have worn-out this bell some, as it kinda sounds like the gong on it is starting to crack. Hopefully CN gives it a bit of TLC, but, either way, I'm definitely quite glad I got to film this crossing when I did.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Tennessee/G- ... on/Easley/