Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

....Until you have a WCH gate mech with a boogered up latch, rendering it almost impossible to close with one person, especially if it is over your head. ...That is, if you were able to beat the damn door open in the first place, since they are notorious for sticking shut. Also, WCH mechs seem to always bounce once the gate has "locked" in the up position, creating a spark on the drive up contact, making a burn spot and eventually wearing it out, causing a gate down/failure to drive up malfunction. Not to mention the wire hose goes from the base all the way up the mechanism to the top of it to enter the mech, what brain designed that?

..I have heard them referred to as "Disposable gate mechanisms"

WRRS/GRS all the way! I can't stand those noisy US&S Model 95's though as BNSF keeps installing them now.
To BNSF with their US&S Mechs STOP IT
As you can see, I HATE HATE HATE Model 95's! They replaced the last Griswold Mech in my area with one

PaulSP wrote:

LARDLOGO wrote:WRRS/GRS all the way! I can't stand those noisy US&S Model 95's though as BNSF keeps installing them now.
To BNSF with their US&S Mechs STOP IT
As you can see, I HATE HATE HATE Model 95's! They replaced the last Griswold Mech in my area with one

Think you've used enough emoticons there?

Just joined. I was just testing the emoticons, but I HATE the heck out of Model 95's. They are ugly and BNSF is going overkill with them

PaulSP wrote:

LARDLOGO wrote:

PaulSP wrote:

LARDLOGO wrote:WRRS/GRS all the way! I can't stand those noisy US&S Model 95's though as BNSF keeps installing them now.
To BNSF with their US&S Mechs STOP IT
As you can see, I HATE HATE HATE Model 95's! They replaced the last Griswold Mech in my area with one

Think you've used enough emoticons there?

Just joined. I was just testing the emoticons, but I HATE the heck out of Model 95's. They are ugly and BNSF is going overkill with them

Being "ugly" is not a very good reason to hate a gate mechanism. Do you have any experiences of them failing or otherwise not functioning properly to support your hating them?

Just realized that's a bad reason

Anyway. Once in Sumas, I was watching a train go by, and after the gate went up the mech kept pumping and shaking. It also got very very hot! Needless to say, The mech still does it VERY often and it gets on my nerves. Then again, I blame bad wiring.

LARDLOGO wrote:

PaulSP wrote:

LARDLOGO wrote:

PaulSP wrote:

LARDLOGO wrote:WRRS/GRS all the way! I can't stand those noisy US&S Model 95's though as BNSF keeps installing them now.
To BNSF with their US&S Mechs STOP IT
As you can see, I HATE HATE HATE Model 95's! They replaced the last Griswold Mech in my area with one

Think you've used enough emoticons there?

Just joined. I was just testing the emoticons, but I HATE the heck out of Model 95's. They are ugly and BNSF is going overkill with them

Being "ugly" is not a very good reason to hate a gate mechanism. Do you have any experiences of them failing or otherwise not functioning properly to support your hating them?

Just realized that's a bad reason

Anyway. Once in Sumas, I was watching a train go by, and after the gate went up the mech kept pumping and shaking. It also got very very hot! Needless to say, The mech still does it VERY often and it gets on my nerves. Then again, I blame bad wiring.

95's are good mech if properly maintained.
WCH while I love the company their older 3590 mech have a lot of problems all around.
Nothing beats a good ol' well maintained GRS type D!

Actually, nowadays, WCH is the cheap alternative, when designers are trying to get by within a certian budget and save money. WCH mechs have mostly inferior design to Safetran, in several aspects. I know someone who refers to them as "Disposable gate mechanisims" ...Not too far from the truth.

"Properly maintained" WCH, means you are constantly adjusting and replacing things. On a Safetran, set it up, use the same gate arms each time they break (To keep the weight the same) keep your contacts clean and oil the HC and grease the gears about once a year, and they will perform for you without fail. But fail to set the verticle and horizontal weight correctly, and your HC will prematurely fail. Thats not the mech's fault.

GRS are good mechs, but they aren't good for longer gate arms; their HC's can't handle it, and the motors don't have the tourque that Safetran has. Also, the drive up contact wears out over time, and you can't keep it in proper shape.

I work with this stuff on a daily basis, I have my hands all in them, and I praise the good ones when they work well, and cuss the stupid ones for all they are worth, right from the start when I go to open a WCH mech and have to deal with the stupid, poorly designed, cheap latch on top, so believe me, I'm not shooting from the hip because of some company history, or because of what I grew up seeing or how they look, I know whats up with them from experience.

I would like to say the Safetran gates are pretty neat, not because I got photos of the gates (and signals) of them and mostly in my area. but they also are really neat on the signals

Safetran for life my friends, A very well made mechanism indeed!

I voted for WRRS/GRS Type B/D. When I was growing up nearly all the crossings in my area had type B's and I like the look of them. I have never seen one malfunction or give any kind of trouble, either with longer gates or shorter ones. There are still a few type B's left in Australia, along with some type D's, I guess for them to last for so long they must have been well made.

I have a few favorites. I'll start off with my favorite...

1. WRRS Model 10/McK&H Gate Mechanism.
These are arguably my favorite. Not only do they look great on classic signals, but they always seem to work without any flaws.

2. Westinghouse Gate Mechanism.
Although not a listed option, most crossings near me have Westinghouse Gate Mechs (Including my childhood crossing, McGregor Road).

3. Safetran.
Pretty sturdy design, works well with newer setups. Though it's annoying when it replaces an older gate mech.