CR 1450 N, near Tuscola, IL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-20-25*

Signal on the left: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a WRRS mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.

After catching the work train meeting the lite power move, I decided to continue on up over to this crossing to catch the second northbound I'd seen earlier. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch my fifth train of the day: a northbound CN mixed freight with a pair of IC SD70 sister units leading a CN-painted GTW GP38-2 for power! Definitely great to finally be able to catch some one of these IC SD70s still in their original "Death Star" paint scheme, especially with one of them leading! This is definitely tied for my best catch of the day, NGL.

This crossing is a great one, featuring a pair of old IC/ICG signals at it at the time still. It appears that, in the 1950s or 60s (I believe?), the IC installed a pair of WRRS gated signals here. Then, in the late-70s, the closer signal was replaced entirely by the ICG, but, thankfully, the original WRRS mechanical bell was reused onto the closer signal. It appears that, at about the same time, the ICG also replaced the relay case here with the current one. Then, in the 1980s, the IC replaced all of the lights here with the current Safetran 12x24s, which were originally incandescent. At about the same time, the IC replaced the gate mechanism on the far side with the current Safetran one. The crossing remained unchanged for a while longer, but, finally, sometime between 2007 and 2015, CN upgraded this crossing to LED. Thankfully, at the time at least, nothing else too major had changed to this crossing yet. It was nice to see that the classic WRRS mechanical bell was still here, and still sounding nice and healthy! The bell here was also set at a nice, fast ring rate and was also set to ring until the gates rise, which was nice to see.
Sadly, as you can see, I wound-up getting here just in the knick of time, as two new signals were set around this crossing by CN to replace the pair of signals here. These new signals are, unsurprisingly, modern Siemens ones and feature all new Safetran 12x24 inch lights with GE Uniform Look LEDs, a new WCH e-bell on the closer one, a pair of Siemens S80 gate mechanisms, and apparently some NEG LED gate lights! Definitely kinda neat to see more S80s going-up, even if they're replacing these older IC/ICG-era signals. It appears that the relay case will remain unchanged. I will admit, I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if the replacement signals have already been installed by the time this video's posted, though I assume TommyBNSF, kyleb06, and/or upking9080 will be able to document the new signals here at some point, or at least confirm if the old ones here are gone, lol. Either way, I'm definitely quite glad I was able to get here just soon enough to film the older IC/ICG signals here before they were replaced, especially since I got to film a pair of IC-painted locomotives leading a train through them as well!

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Illinois/R-Z/Tuscola/1450N/