Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-24-25*

Signal on the far left: 4 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.
Signal on the near left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs.

After catching the northbound Floridian, I decided to hop over to this crossing, as I knew there was a northbound SunRail train coming through behind it. After a couple of minutes of waiting, I was able to catch my tenth and final train of the day: a distant shot of a northbound SunRail commuter train with an MP32PH-Q for power. After this, I returned back down to the hotel in Kissimmee for the night.

This crossing is definitely an unusual one, especially since it's set-up as a double-crossing with Robinson Street #2 just east of it for some reason. I'm guessing it's because a train could technically operate over this crossing while a train is going through on the A Line in the background, due to the A Line being two-tracks through downtown Orlando. I will admit, I still wasn't expecting it to be, seeing as this crossing's gateless while the A Line crossing is gated. Not to mention, this crossing protects the connecting track to the Florida Central Railroad. I suppose it explains why this crossing is still owned and maintained by SunRail though.
Anyways, like with Robinson Street #2, the signals here appear to have been installed by the SCL back in the late-60s or early-70s. Then, later-on in the 1970s, the SCL replaced the front-left mast light on the far cantilever with a Safetran 8 inch light. The signals then remained largely unchanged until sometime in the late-90s when the bell here was replaced with the current GS Type 1 e-bell. Then, the mast lights of the closer cantilever were replaced with a pair of Safetran 12x24 inch lights in the 2000s. The crossing here remained largely unchanged for about a decade or so at most, and even remained incandescent a bit longer than the neighboring A Line crossing. However, sometime between 2011 and 2013, presumably shortly before handing-over ownership of this part of the A Line and this crossing with it, it appears CSX chose to upgrade this crossing to LED as well. As a result, all of the lights here were replaced by the current LED Safetran 12 inch lights, with the closer cantilever getting the standard 24 inch backgrounds. Strangely, the far cantilever got all 20 inch backgrounds on its lights, not sure why CSX chose to use them here. Regardless, this crossing remained largely unchanged for over a decade after, until sometime between 2024 and 2025, the the mast lights on the closer cantilever disappeared from it. Not sure if they were damaged and SunRail just simply haven't replaced them yet, or if they were deemed unnecessary and removed due to that.
Either way, this crossing still retains it's unusual gateless install, with both cantilevers here being located on the same side of the road. The closer one even has the rear pair of overhead lights mounted in the middle of the arm, which looks even more strange, even if it makes a bit more sense as to why they were mounted there. Thankfully, both signals are still the original SCL-era Federal Signal cantilevers, and even still has a GS Type 1 e-bell! I believe the GS Type 1 here might actually be the last one SunRail owns still, at least in downtown Orlando anyways. Either way, this is definitely a neat and unusual crossing, and I'm glad I was able to record it in action thanks to being tied-in with its neighboring crossing on the A Line.