14th Street, Tampa, FL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-23-25*

Southbound signal: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Federal Signal mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Northbound signal: 1 pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching the northbound Floridian leaving Tampa, I moved over to this crossing close to Tampa Union Station and waited for the very late-running southbound Floridian to come through. Thankfully, just before sunset, I was able to catch my ninth and final train of the day: a 7.5-hour late Amtrak 41 shoving into Union Station in Tampa with an ALC-42 and a P42DC for power!

This crossing is a great one, and, IMHO, is easily the crown jewel of the crossings in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood. The signals here are an absolutely classic split-mast ACL install, which I believe date back to the 1940s or possibly even the 1930s. It appears that, in the mid-1970s, the SCL replaced the bell here with the current Federal Signal mechanical bell. Then, in the 1980s, either the SBD or CSX replaced the gate mechanism on the bell-less signal with the current WCH one. After that, in the late-90s, CSX replaced the relay case here with a newer one. At about the same time, it appears that the signal with the bell here had its gate mech replaced with the current Safetran one while the lights were all upgraded to the current Safetran 12x24s. The crossing remained largely unchanged for at least two decades after, but, finally, sometime after PlyingKibbles89 visited this crossing in 2024, CSX replaced the base of the signal with the bell with the current WCH one.
Thankfully, despite all of the various upgrades to this crossing, these classic split-mast ACL signals still remain in service! I must say, I'm quite glad I managed to get a couple of videos of this crossing in action, as I believe this is the first time I've filmed split-mast signals of this style. It seems these are, or at least were, much more common on really old signals up in New England, though it doesn't seem like they were used too widely here in the southeastern US. Amazingly, both signals also only retain one pair of lights each still, no doubt an arrangement dating back to when these signals were originally installed decades ago. Admittedly, I'd filmed three other crossings before with only front lights (Cumberland Street in Cowan, TN, and Buford Station Road near Lynnville, TN, though the latter was a pair of cantilevers that had their arms, which undoubtedly originally had rear lights on the overhead lights, chopped off, along with US 72 in Scottsboro, which features four gated mast signals on a 4-lane divided highway), though I believe this is the only crossing on a two-lane road like this I've ever recorded with proper mast signals, much less gated mast signals, to only have front lights! Of course, that doesn't even mention the older WCH gate mech on the bell-less signal here, along with the rare Federal Signal mechanical bell here, which thankfully still sounds nice and healthy!
Admittedly, I couldn't entirely decide on which side of the crossing I wanted to film, so I chose to set-up my secondary camera on the north side of the crossing so I could film both at the same time, and I also chose to upload each video separately. All in all, this is a very classic crossing, and I'm glad I was able to get both sides of it recorded. Hopefully these classic ACL signals remain here for many, many more years to come. This crossing is also the first one east (timetable north) of the diamond with Tampa's streetcar just outside of the Union Station, which is just west of here. This isn't the southernmost crossing on the A Line, or at least the southernmost crossing before the Union Station, however. That honor goes to the next crossing west, 3rd Avenue, which still features a fully original mid-90s CSX install at it! Doesn't really seem like anyone's ever filmed that crossing before either...

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Florida/R-Z/Tampa/14th/