Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Not sure what exactly this is used for, but it is interesting (its the signal with the white X). I think this is the crossing by the Amtrak station in Springfield.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2584286

Looks cool, probably used to indicate if the crossing was active or not.

Cheers,
Joshua

SantaFebuff wrote:Looks cool, probably used to indicate if the crossing was active or not.

Cheers,
Joshua

I believe that would be correct... since there appears to be the same type of one on the other side.

Very cool find by the way. While the cantilevers at that crossing were updated sometime in the mid 70's and the lights themselves changed to 12 inchers sometime in the 80's... the gate masts shown in that picture are still in use today. In fact, even the barrier around the signal (to protect it from traffic) appears to have lasted the last 42 years.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3rd+%26+j ... PcAZWT5arw

The bells are also still in use as well.

I can bet that one of those bells been ringing for 42 years. Good life span.

BBT609 wrote:I can bet that one of those bells been ringing for 42 years. Good life span.

WRRS bells are hard to beat, it also helps that the crossing in Springfield the bells used to only ring when the gates went down(Probably changed since UP signal department standard is hooking up the bells to the EOR now)
Also last time I rode Amtrak the gate mechs were replaced with newer WCH didn't get a good look because it was dark, but looked like one was a 3590 and the other a 3597.

But in all honesty, those bell keep ringing and sounding good. WC Hayes gates I heard are the most durable out there as Safetran is a runner up. They are basically the only 2 long running companies. Modern Industries, GRS, WABCO, US&S, WRRS have all died.

BBT609 wrote:But in all honesty, those bell keep ringing and sounding good. WC Hayes gates I heard are the most durable out there as Safetran is a runner up. They are basically the only 2 long running companies. Modern Industries, GRS, WABCO, US&S, WRRS have all died.

US&S is still in business. It is now Arnaldo STS (I'm not sure of the correct spelling).

BBT609 wrote:But in all honesty, those bell keep ringing and sounding good. WC Hayes gates I heard are the most durable out there as Safetran is a runner up. They are basically the only 2 long running companies. Modern Industries, GRS, WABCO, US&S, WRRS have all died.

WCH 3590 have a few problems but so do Safetran/Invensys/Siemens S60
Safetran/Invensys/Siemens S40 and WCH 3597 are both great for new mechs.
MI was a very shitty knock off company.
GRS and US&S made the best signal equipment and revolutionized the railroad industry completely.
GRS is part of Alstom now.
US&S/WABCO was founded by George Westinghouse, who as everyone knows was an electrical genius, even smarter than Thomas Edison.
The biggest thing MR. Westinghouse did was In 1869, at age 22, he invented a railroad braking system using compressed air, which all mordern trains STILL used based on his design.
So to say the companies died is a huge insult to thepeople who revolutionized the railroad industry and started them.

BBT609 wrote:I can bet that one of those bells been ringing for 42 years. Good life span.

Yes, I'm pretty sure they have been. Here is a video of this crossing I took from about 3 1/2 years ago. (The LED light that was malfunctioning was fixed sometime in the fall of 2009).

Also, Kight, the bells only ring until the gates are down. As with the case in this video... these signals remain active quite a lot when Amtrak stops at the station, so that's a good thing.