Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

This was on I-95 (now I-395) , at the Washington & Old Dominion rail tracks just north of Four Mile Run, between the Shirlington and Glebe Rd exits. This crossing dates back to the roads origin as the Shirley Highway (old VA 350) in 1950.in northern Virginia. The crossing lasted until 1968.

Not only was it a crossing on an interstate highway, but look closely at the signals (as good as you can considering the blurriness of the photo)

Tip: Copy the pic to your computer and zoom in on it for a better look.

They have 45 degree crossbucks, and on the right signal I can see a light in the center. It's hard to tell, but because there is a light in the center, It appears that there may only be one light per signal instead of the pairs that we are used to seeing.

WTF?

I really wish a better photo of this crossing could be located.

Wig wag, perhaps? Or maybe a traffic signal.

I blew it up in Photoshop as much as I could. Seems to be a 45 degree crossbuck with a single red light. It appears there is a frame of sorts above the crossbuck, so perhaps it could be a Harpes, but that doesn't explain the red light below. And even for the 60's, this is hardly adequate warning for such a busy road.

I noticed in the original picture there are amber warning lights on the RR advance signs.

There also appears to the same type of crossbuck on the left side of the road in the median. You can clearly see the one on the other side of the road between the engine and the first car. Wonder if those had a light too and maybe wig wagged between the two? (Just a guess of course...)

Wonder if those had a light too and maybe wig wagged between the two? (Just a guess of course...)
I noticed in the original picture there are amber warning lights on the RR advance signs.

There also appears to the same type of crossbuck on the left side of the road in the median. You can clearly see the one on the other side of the road between the engine and the first car. Wonder if those had a light too and maybe wig wagged between the two? (Just a guess of course...)

That was my guess as well. I'm wondering if these were installed by the DOT rather than the railroad due to the non-standard light setup.

...and yeah, this crossing definatly needed cantilevers.

Someone today posted this one photograph to the Abandon Rails Facebook group, I think this maybe the crossing discussed in this topic. Pretty odd that signals like that would have survived up into the 1960s.

Looks like they use traffic signal sections.