Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

This is the Norfolk Southern ex-NYC/PC/Conrail line that I so often shoot in Northwest Indiana. This time I'm in La Porte where I found this unusual activation sequence. There's an identical set-up in South Bend that I've shot but have yet to edit. My hunch is this is an attempt to make a safer grade crossing.

This next video is of what is conventionally referred to as the Porter Branch. Historically, this line was once the Michigan Central which intersected the New York Central in Porter, Indiana. Today, it is a seldom-used CSX line (seldom as in not nearly as much as it used to). Always nice to see the classic Santa Fe warbonnet paint deco. Of particular interest to us crossing signal aficionados is the unusual crossing gate bracket, made by Safetran. These signals are relatively new, and at one time both gates had these brackets. Also of note is the lettering on the crossbuck. There's more than a handful of railroad crossing signs like this one in the region. The font, if you will, is lifted from the vintage cast iron and later porcelain crossbucks. Being old school, I prefer it.

WRRS-Chicago wrote:This next video is of what is conventionally referred to as the Porter Branch. Historically, this line was once the Michigan Central which intersected the New York Central in Porter, Indiana. Today, it is a seldom-used CSX line (seldom as in not nearly as much as it used to). Always nice to see the classic Santa Fe warbonnet paint deco. Of particular interest to us crossing signal aficionados is the unusual crossing gate bracket, made by Safetran. These signals are relatively new, and at one time both gates had these brackets. Also of note is the lettering on the crossbuck. There's more than a handful of railroad crossing signs like this one in the region. The font, if you will, is lifted from the vintage cast iron and later porcelain crossbucks. Being old school, I prefer it.

Harmon made (and probably still makes) those crossbucks, IIRC. The local shortline here has some installed at the southernmost signals along their line. The signals were installed back in the early-2000s, BTW. Conrail was a big fan of them as well.

WRRS-Chicago wrote:This is the Norfolk Southern ex-NYC/PC/Conrail line that I so often shoot in Northwest Indiana. This time I'm in La Porte where I found this unusual activation sequence. There's an identical set-up in South Bend that I've shot but have yet to edit. My hunch is this is an attempt to make a safer grade crossing.

First off, I still think the gate mast attached to the cantilever like that looks really weird.

Second, the gate activation sequence is one of those newer inventions that's starting to become more common. The first set of gates go down like normal, but the second gates are delayed in case there is something on the crossing. If a car is stalled, the second set of gates won't lower.

LARDLOGO wrote:First off, I still think the gate mast attached to the cantilever like that looks really weird.

Second, the gate activation sequence is one of those newer inventions that's starting to become more common. The first set of gates go down like normal, but the second gates are delayed in case there is something on the crossing. If a car is stalled, the second set of gates won't lower.

Most quad gate crossings do have the delay on activation, but usually all 4 gates go up at the same time at deactivation.

At the very end of the video (with the Amtrak train), you can see a crossing a block down (with only 2 gates) is already fully shut off before the main gates on the quad crossing are even half way up. A little odd for sure.