Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

You know, when you look at different countries around the world, they all have their own unique type of crossing, like the different looking crossbucks, the different kinds of mast setups, different kind of crossbars, different type of bells, different cantilever set up, how the mechanisms work in these crossings, either if the county's crossing is manual-operated or automatic, and how different layout of their at-grade crossings.

To you, what country (or countries) you think has the best looking and sounding crossings?


To me, I like all of the Northern European crossings (Norway, Sweden, Finland, & Denmark), they got nice sounding bells, an unique looking crossbar, I really like the design of all those crossbucks from those countries, and more importantly, I really like the lights these countries uses for their crossings

The US, Canada, Australia, and the UK.

For the US, the reason should be obvious, I live there and grew up with them! Canada and Australia are the same way for using (mostly) equipment from US manufacturers (or at least very similar signals to what the US uses).

I also like the UK's crossings because they're rather cool and unique compared to the US's crossings and are some of the safest crossings in the world, from what I've heard.

I'd have to say North America because obviously that's where I live and the U.K. because I actually like the sound of Yodalarms.

For me I would say the UK because of how safe and efficient they are.

For me it's the US signal design. It's simple, sensible and reliable. It's no wonder other countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia (where I live) have adopted it. It's even sprung up in other parts of the world as well!

US by design, and the UK by implementation. I really like how most crossings in the UK are actually retractable fences, which should really discourage going around gates.

ZachL wrote: I really like how most crossings in the UK are actually retractable fences, which should really discourage going around gates.

What do you mean? The majority of crossings in the United Kingdom have vertical gates that lower horizontally, just like here in the United States.

ToledoRailfan wrote:

ZachL wrote: I really like how most crossings in the UK are actually retractable fences, which should really discourage going around gates.

What do you mean? The majority of crossings in the United Kingdom have vertical gates that lower horizontally, just like here in the United States.

The parts of the gates that touch the ground. Guess I could have also expanded on how almost all (or all?) UK crossings are quad-gate installs as well.

I like the US, Australia, and Canada crossing designs as they're all similar. The UK's are pretty good too as they're pretty safe and people don't seem to die at them constantly (Main Road, St Albans anyone?).