*originally recorded on 2-27-22*
Signal on the left: 2 pairs of RACO 8 inch lights, 2 pairs of RACO 12x20 inch lights, an NEG electronic bell, a Safetran gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 1 pair of WCH 12x24 inch lights with Leotek EV Series LEDs, 2 pairs of RACO 12x20 inch lights, a RACO mechanical bell, a RACO gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
This was the third and final train I caught on this day, and it was easily my best catch of the day. The train was another southbound mixed freight with a YN2 AC44CW pulling on the head-end and a YN3b ES44AH working as the mid-train DPU! I'd known that CSX had been equipping some of their later AC44s with DPU capabilities, including some in YN2, but I didn't expect to catch a YN2 AC44 leading a train with an unmanned DPU like this! I'd actually caught this exact pair of units on a northbound mixed freight over on the A Line a few days prior, though the ES44AH was leading there and the AC44CW was the mid-DPU.
After this, I decided to head back to my hotel as, although the rain seemed to be letting-up, it was still fairly cold, wet, and miserable out, and I was already chilled and soaked enough.
This crossing is another great one, featuring an old SCL install from the late-60s/very early-70s like most of the other crossings around Greenwood. It appears that these were largely original up until sometime in the late-90s or 2000s, when CSX replaced the RACO gate mechanism on the far signal with the current Safetran one. Then, sometime between 2012 and 2017, the original RACO bell on the far signal was replaced with the current NEG e-bell. Finally, sometime between 2019 and when I first visited where in December of 2021, CSX replaced the original pair of RACO 8 inch lights on the closer signal with the current LED WCH 12x24s.
Thankfully, this crossing still retains all of its original RACO 12x20s, along with a RACO bell and gate mech on the closer signal, which are all great to see. This is also why I chose to set-up over on this side, as I wanted to be on the side with the RACO bell and gate mech when recording the video.
The crossing here also features a rather unusual pair of cantilevers at it. The cantilevers are branded as being from Federal Signal, though I'm not entirely sure if they made these themselves or if they're some kind of weird early Walpar cantilever. The bases of the cantilevers do kinda remind me of some that I've seen on some early Walpar cantilevers, though the ones that I'm fairly certain were earlier Walpar ones featured a different (though very similar) design of cover on them (which seems to have usually been blank). The arms on these are also noticably thinner than on most Walpar cantilevers I've seen, and lack the cross-bracing between the upper and lower parts of the arm that Walpar cantilevers feature. The arms also feature a platform for the front overhead lights, something that I don't recall seeing on any other cantilevers of this style save for some Harmon cantilevers from around this time.
Speaking of Harmon, the arms do look quite similar to theirs, but, like with Walpar, they are noticeably thinner. The arms also feature pointed caps on the ends of them, while Harmon cantilevers of this era all used flat caps and Walpar cantilevers generally use rounded ones, from my observation. I suppose it's possible that these were a rather early Walpar cantilever design that I just hadn't seen before, given the similarities in the base and mast design. My guess is that Walpar only ever made these rather briefly, before quickly going to the more common design of arm seen on these, in order to better differentiate them from the Harmon cantilevers being made at about the same time.
If you like my videos, feel free to leave me a tip on Ko-Fi! As YouTube has demonetized my channel, this is currently the only way I can make money to be able to go places.
https://ko-fi.com/freebrickproductions