Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

*originally recorded on 6-25-25*

Signal on the left: 3.5 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, 1 Harmon 12x24 inch light with a GE Uniform Look LED, a General Signals Type 3 electronic bell, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Safetran-branded Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the far right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Pedestrian signal on the near right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x20 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Siemens gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
This crossing is located in a quiet zone. Trains do not usually blow their horns at this crossing.

While the Floridian was stopped at the station south of downtown Orlando, I took the opportunity to hop on I-4 and make my way up to this crossing on the north side of the downtown, as I thought the angle of the tracks here would make for a good shot of the train. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch Amtrak 40 with the Day 1 heritage unit leading once again! After this, I returned back to the hotel in Kissimmee for our final night in Florida on this trip.

This crossing's a pretty decent one, if a bit on the slightly boring side. The signals here were originally installed by CSX back in the mid-90s, and remained largely unchanged for the first couple of decades. Interestingly, on the right, near where the near-right ped signal is now, there was another gated mast signal here originally to protect an empty field to the right, which has been empty since before street view first came through here. Not entirely exactly sure when it would've been installed, as it featured a double-sided base, though it did have a mid-90s Safetran gate mech on it as well. I suppose it's entirely possible that it was a 70s SCL or 80s SBD signal, but suspect it was installed in the mid-90s with the rest of the equipment here. Interestingly, this mast also only had just a gate mech and gate arm (and gate lights) on it. No lights, no bell, no nothin' else, not even a crossbuck! I have no idea if it originally would've at least had lights and a crossbuck on it or not, TBH.
Anyways, it appears that in the late-90s, CSX replaced the front-left mast light here with the current Harmon 12x24 (which was originally incandescent), assuming it wasn't original to the install of course. The crossing was then left largely unchanged by CSX and later Sunrail after that for several years until sometime 2016 and 2017, when the honestly rather pointless extra gated mast signal had its gate mech and gate arm removed by SunRail, leaving only the wind-guard at the top of it. Then, sometime between 2018 and 2019, the now-bare, formerly-gated mast signal was finally removed. At about the sametime, the trio of pedestrian signals here were installed by SunRail, and the original WCH mechanical bell here was sadly replaced by the current GS Type 3 e-bell. It appears that the cantilever also had its original Safetran gate mech replaced with the current Siemens gate mech around this time as well. After that, sometime between 2022 and 2024, SunRail upgraded the lights on the two road signals here to LED. Finally, sometime after April of 2025, the gate mech on the right-hand signal here was replaced with the current, reused Safetran-branded Siemens gate mechanism.