Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Hi, I have a son who just turned 5, he is an autistic and loves railroad crossing signals. He has loved them for 3 years now (since he was 2), so I think this is an interest that is going to stick around for awhile. He likes to watch videos of crossings and I am trying to find interesting things to point out to him, such as one kind is called a wig wag and now I have him point out the crossbucks. I have always enjoyed being stopped by a train. For him, seeing a crossing is a delight and seeing an activated one is about the best thing that could happen that day:). Since it's about the only thing he wants to talk about, I should have something to say.

I would really like to put together a children's book about train crossings and signals. I make custom books for him all the time with index cards and a photo book, but I haven't found any good kids books on this topic. Which leaves him with a few train books with like one tiny crossing picture, not very satisfying for the little chap.

Can anyone recommend a site that teaches about trains and some about signals? He is always asking me about the other signals, the ones that are for the trains, but I don't know what they are called. How do the people making the youtube videos know what the names of the routes are? Thanks.

I can recommend this book if he doesn't have it already.

http://www.amazon.com/Country-Crossing- ... 0689315805

...and here's a site that may have some of the information you are looking for:

http://www.trainweb.org/signals/

I have a signals section on my Railroad Picture Archives site, and many of the other members on this forum have something similar:

http://andyws.rrpicturearchives.net/arc ... x?id=18978

Of course, the main site itself has a wealth of photos and information about crossing signals.

http://www.rxrsignals.net/Signals/index.html

http://www.rxrsignals.net/102/