Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

ofcourse not all of us are signal maintainers... but I would like to try that. See how the relay case works and all the inspecting, maintaining and repairs you have to do to keep the signals under control. It looks quite interesting. Ofcourse at this time CSX is laying off so many people that I'd never get a job there. i'd have to go somewhere else like BNSF, NS, or someone other than Crashing Stuff Xperts. This CSX laying off stuff is killing railfanning down here. Soon they will be about as active as the Alabama Gulfcoast Railway.

Here's a video you might enjoy a bit...and it also gives a few details about the crossing...and shows how it works with the rear lights and such...

owensri wrote:Here's a video you might enjoy a bit...and it also gives a few details about the crossing...and shows how it works with the rear lights and such...

Very interesting video! Thanks for taking the time to post it. I'm surprised they didn't stop the train and flag the crossing... although technically Conrail's signals were functioning on both sides (the signals with the gates).

Was that the maintainer's truck there at the end?

cabman701 wrote:

owensri wrote:Here's a video you might enjoy a bit...and it also gives a few details about the crossing...and shows how it works with the rear lights and such...

Very interesting video! Thanks for taking the time to post it. I'm surprised they didn't stop the train and flag the crossing... although technically Conrail's signals were functioning on both sides (the signals with the gates).

Was that the maintainer's truck there at the end?

Actually, the gates are owned by CN...but they are interconnected with Conrail's case...so they remained down the entire time...because of no power in Conrail's case to keep the repeater relays up.

Yes, that was the maintainer arriving at the end...

Here's anotherin:

Thought you guys might enjoy this one:

Description: I was originally at the Oak St. crossing when this train came through. I didn't have my camera with me at the time there. Little did I know that the crossings were going to pick up for this train. The reason is because the empty stack cars are too light to maintain a constant shunt across the rails, so the island circuit of the crossing picks up...causing the signals to shut off until a shunt is regained. The Oak St. crossing did it worse...as the gates got all the way up...and the signals shut off completely for about 5 seconds. There really isn't anything that can be done about this...other than installing a Loss of Shunt module at the crossings. Interesting to say the least though. I picked up my camera from my house...and headed north to see that the train had stopped before The Emmons Blvd. crossing. I had some time to get my camera...and get it ready to record the crossing picking up.

Wow... that is not something I have witnessed personally before.

Luckily the signals do not shut off for very long. Especially with it being nighttime, if some fool wasn't paying attention and didn't see the train still occupying the crossing, it could mean bad news.

Something I have been wondering... would adding the loss of shunt device mean the signals would stay on longer after the train has cleared the crossing?

cabman701 wrote:Wow... that is not something I have witnessed personally before.

Luckily the signals do not shut off for very long. Especially with it being nighttime, if some fool wasn't paying attention and didn't see the train still occupying the crossing, it could mean bad news.

Something I have been wondering... would adding the loss of shunt device mean the signals would stay on longer after the train has cleared the crossing?

Yeah, it's good they didn't shut off completely like Oak St. did. Those gates at Oak stayed up for about 5 seconds...no lights...bells...nothing.

As for the LOS device...yes...there would be about a 5 second delay with the crossing picking up after the train clears the island...but that's not bad if you ask me. Better to be safe than sorry.

New video of my new gate in operation. Still need some wiring to get the mast signal flashing as well as the gate lights.

It's a start anyways... It's getting there slowly but surely.