Salmons Blackjack Road (KY 1434) Railroad Crossing, Salmons, KY

originally recorded on 11-25-25

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a GRS gate mechanism, and NEG LED gate lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of WCH 12x24 inch lights with WCH 2nd Generation LEDs, a WRRS mechanical bell, a GRS gate mechanism, RECO gate lights, and an NEG LED gate light.

After catching M209, that southbound autorack met an M574 at Mitchellville, so I decided to hop on over to this crossing to film the northbound mixed freight. After a bit of waiting, I was able to catch my second train of the day: CSX M574 with an ES44AH leading an ET44AH on the head-end and an ES40DC working as the mid-train DPU, slowing down for a very slow speed restriction on the line somewhere to my north, I believe due to track work.

This crossing is another great one, featuring a 1970s L&N install at it that's still largely original. It appears the only major change here occurred sometime in the early to mid-2010s, when CSX replaced all of the original MI 12x20 inch lights here with the current LED WCH 12x24 inch lights to upgrade the crossing to LED. Not sure why they didn't just retrofit the existing 12 inch heads, but oh well. Thankfully, since then, nothing else too major here appears to have changed. The crossing still retains its original GRS Type D gate mechs and WRRS mechanical bell, which are all great to see. ‪@EthantheRailfanner‬ thinks the WRRS bell here sounds a bit flat, though I personally think it still sounds fairly good and healthy. Seems to struggle a bit when the gates begin to lower, but I suspect that's due to the mast shaking a bit due to torque from the gate mech and causing the hammer to miss the gong a couple of times as a result. The closer signal here also still retains a pair of older RECO incandescent gate lights, which are nice to see as well. Hopefully this crossing remains unchanged for many more years to come, but, either way, I'm glad I got to record it when I did. With this video now as well, I believe I have now recorded every remaining WRRS mechanical bell along the CSX Mainline Subdivision (with this being the southernmost of the WRRS bells on the Mainline Sub)!

https://www.rxrsignals.com/Kentucky/R...

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