🗓 Date: 7/29/21
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After finishing up railfanning in Latta, we continued heading north toward North Carolina and eventually New England. Since our route would take us near the Raleigh area, I had the last-minute bright idea to stop for the nightly Amtrak Silver Star in Cary. Thankfully my family agreed. It was late in the evening when we finally arrived in Cary. After taking forever to get food, we raced to the tracks. I was already setting up my camera when I heard this train approaching in the distance. Thankfully, I was able to set it up in time, and the crossing protection activated seconds later. Here we see the southbound P091, the Silver Star to Miami making its station stop in Cary with two P42DCs in the lead.
One glance at the crossing protection here reveals exactly why I decided to stop. This crossing is a nearly-original 1980s SCL install, with the only changes being an LED retrofit by CSX in early 2019. Both cantilevers are made by Modern Industries, as well as all the 12×24 inch lights on the cantilevers. Both gate masts are even rarer, though. They each have a WABCO base, US&S Model 75 gate motor, and one pair of US&S 12×20 inch lights.
Rarest of all, though, are the bells. This crossing somehow still retains a pair of SCL-era WABCO mechanical bells! There are incredibly few of these left in the country, and this is one of the only crossings with a pair of them! These bells were never too popular to begin with, but their poor design leads them to break easily. All in all, I am very glad to have recorded this crossing as well as filming my first crossing in the beautiful state of North Carolina!
Also noteworthy is the fact that this crossing activated exactly 20 seconds before the train arrived, the bare minimum required by the Federal Highway Administration.
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Timestamps:
0: 00 – Signal activation!
0: 22 – Train!
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