Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-24-25*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

On the morning of June 24th, I decided to head back up to the CSX Sanford Subdivision to try and get a few more crossings on that line recorded. After a little while of waiting, I was able to catch my first train of the day: the southbound Amtrak Floridian, running only 3 hours late this time, with a Phase V P42DC leading one of the "Day 1" heritage units (an ALC-42) for power! Definitely nice to get AMTK 301 again, even if it was trailing once again.

This crossing is a nice one, featuring a rather neat install at it. The signals here appear to have originally been installed by the SCL back in the late-70s, though, in the late-80s or early-90s, CSX replaced all of the lights here with the current MI 12x24s. Then, in the late-90s (or possibly the early-2000s), the far bell here was replaced with a GS e-bell, followed by the other bell here being replaced by the current GS Type 2 e-bell in the 2000s (as well). The crossing here remained relatively unchanged for well over a decade after that, until sometime between 2018 and 2021, when CSX replaced the bell on the far signal again, this time with the current NEG e-bell. Finally, sometime between 2023 and 2025, the original WCH gate mech on the far signal was replaced with the current Siemens one. Thankfully, since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing.
Due to the rather sharp angle the tracks here cross at, one pair of lights on each signal is mounted offset from the mast on a short extension arm. Rather than the rear lights, as I've traditionally seen, this time it's the front lights that are off-set, which looks rather cool, IMHO. Hopefully these older signals remain in service for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm quite glad I got to record these when I did.