Willow Springs Road, Willow Springs, IL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 11-24-25*

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

After catching the Amtrak Texas Eagle in Lemont, I decided to hop over to this crossing since I figured it should still have a Safetran Hybrid bell at it. I got here and got set-up, and, after a while of waiting, I was able to catch my second train of the day here: an outbound Metra commuter train making a stop at the Willow Springs Metra Station with an MP36PH-3S pulling it for power.
After catching the outbound Metra commuter train, I saw that a northbound train was approaching the crossing, so I decided to leave my camera set-up at the same spot and get another video of this crossing. Soon after, I was able to catch my third and final train of the day: a northbound CN intermodal train with a UP AC45CCTE leading a UP AC4460CW for power. Definitely a bit nice to see another AC4460CW, even if it was trailing.

This crossing is another rather nice one, featuring a somewhat modernized mid-90s IC install at it. This crossing was actually still fully original when TommyBNSF documented it back in 2020, though, sometime between then and when kyleb06 made it out here to film it in 2022, CN replaced the original Safetran 12x24 inch lights here with the current LED Safetran 12x24 inch lights. Not sure why the heads were replaced entirely just to give this crossing an LED upgrade, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much. Either way, when Kyle filmed this back in 2022, the original Safetran Hybrid bell on the far signal was sadly dead, and that bell would be replaced with the current Safetran Type 3 e-bell by 2023. Thankfully, since then, nothing else has changed to this crossing, which is nice to see. I'm glad to see that the closer signal still retains its original Safetran Hybrid bell as well, and it still sounds nice and healthy too! The bells here are also still set to ring when the gates are lowering and rising as well, which is nice to see. Hopefully this crossing remains entirely unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I got to film these signals when I did.

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Illinois/R-Z ... w_Springs/