Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-23-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights, a dying(?) Safetran mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching the southbound Floridian shoving into Tampa, I hopped on over to this crossing and prayed I'd have enough ambient light for when it finally left from Union Station to get an at least decent recording of this crossing. Thankfully, after a little bit of waiting, Amtrak 41 departed from Tampa and I was able to catch the Floridian as it continued its journey south to Miami, still running over 7.5 hours late. After this, I returned back to the hotel in Kissimmee for the night.

This crossing is another great one, featuring another pair of older signals at it. It appears that this crossing originally featured an old pair of ACL signals at it, though, in the mid-1970s, the SCL replaced the closer signal here with the current one. Then, in the early-1980s, the SBD upgraded the lights on the closer signal here to the current WCH 12x24s. After that, later on in the mid-80s, the SBD replaced the far signal entirely with the current Safetran one. Thankfully, since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing, which is nice to see.
This crossing is another of the ones in Ybor City that crossing-fans visiting Tampa tend to head for, and it's easy to see why. The crossing retains what I believe is the only surviving Safetran mechanical bell on the A Line in Ybor City, with this Safetran also being a rarer 1st Gen one! Sadly, the bell briefly stops shortly after it starts before it gets going again. Not sure what's up with that, as it still sounds fairly healthy otherwise. Definitely nice to get it filmed as well regardless, along with the older WCH 12x24s and both of the older Safetran gate mechs here as well. Hopefully CSX gives it a bit of TLC, but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record this crossing as well.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Florida/R-Z/Tampa/17th/