Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

I found this on the Merriam-Webster website that shows a picture of a crossing signal (A canadian signal, but it still works), and labels what parts of the signal are the official terms of that part.



The source is from here: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/trans ... ossing.php

I can understand the name "Junction Box", but it doesn't list what comes off of it. I've heard people calling them "spiders", but I never heard a correct term for those things.

Looks like I may have to change my "brackets" term a bit.

"Junction box" I would guess refers to what is inside of it, where all the wires from the different lightheads come together and are connected to the power supply & flasher control.



It that sense it functions like any other electrical wiring junction box, but it's also a bracket since all the arms for holding the lightheads are bolted to it.

WCH calls those "crossarms" and "Junction boxes".

They also call those pieces that attach to the junction boxes and lights "brackets".

If you are talking about the junction box in the middle of the lights...that would be referred to as a "Crossarm Junction Box"...because if you just say "junction box"....it could mean the base as well...because those are also called "junction boxes". When referring to the base...you would call it a "junction box base".

I hate when people call them "spiders" or "trees"....it's a "crossarm assembly"