23rd Street, Tampa, FL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-23-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a WRRS gate mechanism, and non-functional NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell, a US&S Model 75 gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching the Silver Meteor, I went back over to the CSX Aloma Spur to see about trying to catch L717 again, only for them to sneak-up on me. As such, since the southbound Floridian was running rather late, I decided to hop on I-4 and make a drive right on over to the Ybor City neighborhood in Tampa to see if I couldn't get both Amtraks in Tampa on this afternoon/evening. Thankfully, I was able to get here with plenty of time to spare. After a while of waiting, I was able to catch my eighth train of the day: the northbound Amtrak Floridian with a pair of ALC-42s for power shoving the train into Tampa's Union Station.

This crossing is a great one, featuring a nice pair of older signals at it still. It appears that this crossing had signals at it originally installed by the ACL decades ago, possibly the 1950s or 60s or even before. Either way, in the early-1980s, the closer signal was replaced by the Seaboard System with the current US&S one, though a bit unusually the lights on the replacement signal were all WCH 12x20s and the old US&S base covers from the previous ACL signal were reused onto the new one. Then, in the late-90s, CSX replaced the bell here with the current GS Type 1 e-bell. After that, in the 2000s, CSX replaced the lights on the far signal with the current Safetran 12x24s. The crossing remained largely unchanged for a few more years, but, then, sometime between 2007 and 2011, CSX replaced the front-right light on the closer signal with another Safetran 12x24. Finally, sometime between 2013 and 2014, CSX replaced all of the lights on the closer signal with the current WCH 12x24s with LEDs. Thankfully, in the decade since then, nothing else too major has changed to this crossing, which is great to see.
Definitely great to see that the classic ACL signal on the far side is still here, especially since it still retains its original WRRS gate mech! Nice to get another one of those filmed, especially since the Ybor City neighborhood in Tampa retains the last two WRRS gate mechs on the entire A Line. Also nice to see that the closer signal still retains an older US&S Model 75 gate mech and a nice GS Type 1 e-bell on it as well, even if the lights on it are now LED. The far signal has also had the wire to its gate lights snapped for one reason or another at the time, so none of the gate lights on that signal were working when I recorded this. Hopefully the older signals here remain unchanged for many more years to come (aside from the gate light wire on the far side being fixed, of course), but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record this when I did.