Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Again, not taken by me, but it shows a fairly good clip of the crossing in action. Unfortunately he doesn't show the gates going up, but you can hear the bell ringing at the end, indicating that they're rising. Note how slow the light flash rate is...

Haven't people ever heard of a tripod? They cost like $25 at walmart, shesh...

Tripods are nice, but they take a long time to setup. I have used one in the past, but it's more visible on about 1 out of 20 of my videos.

I like that flash rate. That's a perfect rate for me.

Personally for me the flash rate is a bit too slow. It is not very attention grabbing especially as distracted as drivers are today.

A crossing in town here used to acually flash slower than that... it was right next to the Amtrak station. However the flasher relay was replaced about 10 or so years ago and now the flash rate is quite fast. It is this crossing here:

For me, Viall Ave 1 flashes too slow while Viall Ave 2 and Broadway flash way too fast. I guess this would be my ideal flash rate:



Not too fast, not too slow.

One former crossing was very slow. The Eastern cantilever on the Carson #1 crossing was very slow flashing, about 1.5 to 2 second flashes in the late 80s.

To respond to what Mafarnz posted, tripods are good for big camcorders, but not tiny ones, like the Flip Video cmarea that I have. The only thing that those do well on are the small ones that are meant for tabletops.

bnsflover wrote:To respond to what Mafarnz posted, tripods are good for big camcorders, but not tiny ones, like the Flip Video cmarea that I have. The only thing that those do well on are the small ones that are meant for tabletops.

my advice on flip cameras......JUNK
return them while you can and buy a JVC Everio Harddrive camera

TRAINMANKIGHT wrote: my advice on flip cameras......JUNK
return them while you can and buy a JVC Everio Harddrive camera

Amen! I use a JVC, and keep it on a tripod at all times.

I took a vid today. The purpose of the vid is to show off the new light flash rate.