Updated September 1, 2006
These are starting to slowly come around, although they will probably never get off the ground. They were supposed to cost about 50% cheaper than traditional signals were.
It's pretty much a rip-off of Knight Rider, with the light bar moving either right to left or left to right depending which way the train is coming from. (I have no idea how it works when 2 or more trains cross at the same time). The crossbuck also lights up in a red "X" formation. I'm unaware of any bells used with this system though, as this is still in testing purposes, and are installed in less than 10 railroad crossings. I really don't like this type of signal. It's a radical departure from the traditional signals that have been up for over 70 years.
Ex-regular TrainmanWP emailed them in late February, 2006 and got a reply from EVA!
Reply #1: "Our crossbucks do not blink, they flash in a high - low pattern. Every 3 LED's stay on and the next 3 flash. This pattern is so that if the relay that controls them should fail, the signal would not remain dark. At least half of the lamps would be on. They are controlled by a flasher relay or solid state controller inside of the signal cabin.
They are enclosed in a 10 ga Tnemec coated steel housing on the back and sides and 1/2" LEXAN on the front. I have personally shot them with a 9MM pistol and it didn't penetrate. (My .44 blew it apart however)
This didn't help very much, so another email was sent out, with yet another reply in early March, 2006:
Reply #2: A crossbuck is made up of 4 of our LED strip circuit boards. Each board has 84 LED's. We operate at 12 volts nominal and each LED needs about 2 volts and 20 ma. We series the LED's in groups of 6 to equal the 12 volts. Each strip also has 2 + circuits sharing a common -. So the way we get the high - low is by flashing 1 of the circuits on and off while the other stays on constantly. the circuits are clustered in groups of 3 so it appears as 3 on 3 off during the flash.
000000000000000000000000 = low 000000000000000000000000 = high
This way if the flasher relay breaks or sticks in one position, at least half of the LED's remain on.
This still doesn't help much, but since the company isn't going to be around too much longer, it's probably something we won't have to worry about.
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Click Above To Enlarge (1984x1488) |
Click Above To Enlarge (1984x1488) |
This signal company folded sometime in 2007, and put their business up on Ebay, but no buyers took it over, so the company and all its products are now defunct.
NOTE: This crossing Today has had its EVA crossbucks replaced with standard crossbuck signs.
Below is a PDF document of an EVA system installation in North Carolina. They tested the system to see how they worked from 2001-2004: You'll be very surprised by what you see!
(1.56 MB, 16 PAGES)
