Main Street (NC 96) Railroad Crossing, Youngsville, NC

originally recorded on 8-1-24

Signal on the left: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, a dying WABCO mechanical bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 4 pairs of Modern Industries 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, an NEG electronic bell, a WABCO Model 75 gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.

After catching L617 in Wake Forest, I chase the train on up to this crossing in Youngsville for my third crossing of the day. Thankfully, the train had to stop and work a customer on the north side of Wake Forest, which gave me plenty of time to get here and get set-up. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch CSX L617 for the third time on this day.

This crossing is another great one, featuring a pair of older gated cantilevers at it. Originally, there was an old SAL install here (possibly from the 40s?) featuring a pair of gateless mast signals with 8 inch lights and a Teardrop bell mounted in the middle of the road. In the early-1980s, however, the late-SCL upgraded this crossing to the current gated cantilevers, replacing the mast signals here in the process. Not entirely sure why these signals lack rear mast lights, however, as the SCL had been using them on gated cantilevers like this for a while by this point.
Either way, these signals remained largely unchanged for at least a decade or two, but, however, in the 2000s (it appears), CSX replaced the gate mechanism on the far side with the current Safetran one. The crossing was then left largely unchanged for a while after, but then, sometime between 2019 and 2021, the signals here were given an LED upgrade. Finally, sometime between 2023 and 2024, the WABCO bell on the closer signal was sadly replaced with the current NEG e-bell.
Thankfully, the far signal still retains its original WABCO bell, which I'm glad to see still works. Sadly, it sounds like it's on its way out as well, based on how unevenly it rings, with a number of missed beats. Hopefully CSX gives it some TLC, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it is replaced by another NEG e-bell before too long. Either way, it's nice to see that the closer signal still retains its original gate mech, along with another diagonally-striped gate arm.

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