Although it seems like a simple question, not knowing how large or small your layout is can make a difference. Try blowing your horn (or simulate it) for the crossing. (2 longs, 1 short, and 1 long. The last long should stop when you get to the center of the highway.) Once you know where to start blowing the horn for the crossing, I would put the sensor at that point or just before it a couple of inches.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
gandydancer19 wrote:Although it seems like a simple question, not knowing how large or small your layout is can make a difference. Try blowing your horn (or simulate it) for the crossing. (2 longs, 1 short, and 1 long. The last long should stop when you get to the center of the highway.) Once you know where to start blowing the horn for the crossing, I would put the sensor at that point or just before it a couple of inches.
Eh, you can't dictate placement just by blowing.
On the prototype roads, location of the crossing (is it on straight tangent track, or on a blind curve?), track speed, frequency of use, and many other factors come into play. It takes around 20 seconds for a crossing to be "ready" for the train to go through. From the initial activation of the bell and lights, to the entry gates going down, and then the exit gates, you've got a decent amount of time.
Also, you typically want the last blast to last through the crossing, especially if it's a place where you can't see both sides, or the road curves into the crossing, etc. Usually I'll start ringing the bell as I get to the whistle post and will start blowing when I'm 10-15 seconds from the crossing.
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You can straddle a trip across two tracks. If these are what I'm thinking of, you can seperate the trips with 8 track. If they can't see each other, they'll set off the gates. The switches are gonna have to be handled the old fashioned way, That is, unplugging the crossings. there is probably a way to wire in a switch, but otherwise, no. A sensor for a relatively strait run is usually 4-6 carlengths from the gates or 4-6 seconds.
For yours, based on these numbers, I'd put the trip either between the industrial sidings, or just ahead of them, and on the other side after the station or between the station and the crossing, depending on how long the platofrm is.
The Naptown Club has a crossing on a main road next to a staion, coming out of a yard. The tripsare just ahead of the staion, probably 5 inches. Then the street, which has a wye just past it, and then the trips on the other side another 3 inches. This results in trains going off the left into the wiye tripping the gates for nothing, but usually it works.
As an example of one that's too close: where the trips are a quarter inch coming around a blind curve at the penninsula, and another sandwiched between the crossing and a station rouchly an inch from the gates. there's no room for a 2 toot, let alone the crossing whistle.
-Morgan
Per the request of davidmbedard, the following is a rough mainline drawing of what I have. It is a PDF file based on Atlas RTS.
It is a two page pdf. If the link shows as being broken, right click the image and select "View Image" to view it.
Hope this helps.
FRRYKid wrote: Per the request of davidmbedard, the following is a rough mainline drawing of what I have. It is a PDF file based on Atlas RTS. It is a two page pdf. If the link shows as being broken, right click the image and select "View Image" to view it. Hope this helps.
Didn't work. I wtrried the show picture. Try going back into Atlas and save it as a Bitmap, then open it in MS Paint and save it as a JPEG. Then try uploading that
Let's try this version:
Sorry about the problem.
FRRYKid wrote: Let's try this version: Sorry about the problem.
No problem. I think it was the PDF that was messing up.
here's a couple thoughts. The dark brown spots are proably about good, somewhere in that area. the grey is the road. I have two possibilities for the other side in tan, the first is a little close to the intersection, which isn't a problem if your only running right to left in this diagram, if you run both ways, you may have an issue. the seconcd gets tripped by the passenger train in station, but is a little more properly spaced. We'll see what others say
Real crossings have the ability to time-out after being in the circuit for so long. I'm not familiar with the hardware you are using, but that may be something that you want to look into to maintain "prototypical" operation of the gates.
While switching the industries to the "right" side, you'll want to cut your train off to the left of the sensors. Pull the empties out of both tracks and then go back for their loads. This minimizes the amount of time you spend with the gates down.
GraniteRailroader wrote: Real crossings have the ability to time-out after being in the circuit for so long. I'm not familiar with the hardware you are using, but that may be something that you want to look into to maintain "prototypical" operation of the gates. While switching the industries to the "right" side, you'll want to cut your train off to the left of the sensors. Pull the empties out of both tracks and then go back for their loads. This minimizes the amount of time you spend with the gates down.
There are some HO models that will do them. Then the issue becomes tripping them on the way out without the ability to shut them up. The hand works most of the time.
With the tunnel there, I'm not sure there's too many places he can move the sensor.
FRRYKid wrote:I am in the process of building a functional crossing (Circitron components). What I need to know is how far should the Opti-Sensors be from the crossing to be accurate. I run one F-7, GP-18s, GP-20s, and 2 2-6-0 steamers and they do not operate at max scale speed as they run into multiple turnouts. Thank you for all your assistance.
I am currently putting in crossing flashers at two locations and am confronted with a somewhat similar issue at one of them. At one crossing the answer is relatively straight forward. I'm just going to locate the sensors at what I feel to be a realistic distance on either side of the crossing and leave it at that. At the other, in an industrial park, there are numerous turnouts and the trains move at much slower speeds. I finally decided that a simple manual on-off switch will do the job. Maybe that would be your answer, as well.
John Timm