*originally recorded on 3-28-22*
Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights, a General Signals Type 2 electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights, a sick General Signals electronic bell, a WCH gate mechanism, and RECO LED gate lights.
After catching TA-West in Gretna, I tried to chase it across Quincy, but sadly wasn't successful in doing so. As such, I decided to go ahead and hop on down to this crossing in Midway to get it again. Here we see TA-West flying through this small town just off of I-10.
This crossing is another decent one, featuring a pair of 80s SBD signals that have seen a few upgrades to them. It appears that, originally, there was a pair of mechanical bells here, though I'm not sure what the closer one originally had, but I suspect it was a WCH mechanical bell. However, unusually enough, the far signal actually had a WABCO mechanical bell that I believe was re-used either from some previous signals here or from another crossing. In the late-90s/2000s, the closer signal's bell died and was replaced by CSX with the current General Signals e-bell. Then, sometime between 2007 and 2009, the WABCO bell on the far signal was also replaced with the current GS Type 2 over there. At around that same time, the far signal also had its original WCH gate mech replaced with the current Safetran one. Since then, no major changes appear to have occurred here, though, at some point prior to the year 2000 (it appears), CSX did replace the relay case at this crossing with the current one.
Honestly, I chose to go to this crossing on this chase for two reasons:
#1. I felt that it was probably the most boring crossing in Midway that I planned on visiting on this trip, so I wouldn't mind shooting it at night.
#2. I was quickly able to see that there was a place I could pull my car off onto to point my headlights at the crossing with, which, as I didn't know how far out TA-West was, was rather important.
However, I wound-up finding out that the bell on the closer signal has gone sick at some point, just making a buzzing sound rather than actually ringing. I suspect the FGAR will replace it before too long (most likely with a GS Type 3), but I was still able to record this one, lol. Certainly a rather interesting sound to hear come from a GS e-bell, that's for sure.
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