Gate Mechanism Question

[AndrewFields]

I was out tonight at Nicolai Street in Portland and the gate was up, signals off but the gate mechanism kept moving back and forth against the end of its travel, banging against the stops and causing the entire signal to rock back and forth. I tried to get a video of it with my cell phone but the phone would not let me due to the low battery level. A fairly short P&W freight activated the signal and when the gate rose again, it did not resume the bouncing.

Anybody have any clue what causes this?

[owensri]

Yep, here's the video I got of this...

[AndrewFields]

Thanks, Elton. That helps a lot.

Owen...the signal I saw was not doing it that quickly but the movement was similar.

[cabman701]

I saw that happen once awhile back. The gate would drop far enough to cause the lights to come on for a second until it pulled itself back up. Caused a mess with traffic because people got confused on what was happening.

This had to be 10+ years ago, before they put the 800 #'s on the signals. I called the local non-emergency police number, figured they would know who to call. But, 3 hours later I went by the crossing again and it was still doing it.