When my dad fired on the Louisiana & Arkansas out of Greenville, Texas back in the late Thirties, there was a diamond crossing with the Cotton Belt just east of town. The crossing didn't justify spending the money to build a tower and hire an operator, so the crossing was unmanned. It was protectedby a swinging gate.
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The drill was you stopped, the head end brakeman dismounted, unlocked the gate with his switch key, swung it to block the other railroad, locked it in place and got back on the locomotive. Depending on the line's rules, you either left it that way or stopped and the rear brakeman returned the gate to its original configuration once you cleared the crossing
When I was a small child in the mid 1950s growing up on Long Island, NY, my family would frequently pass through Hicksville on the way to my grandparents house. Hicksville was ground level at that time but what was interesting was that the 2 major road crossings just to the east of the station were still manned by crossing tenders and manually cranked crossing gates. I recall my father telling me that those men were usually RR employees who had been injured elsewhere while on the job. To the best of my knowledge, those manual gates remained until the station and road crossings were elevated in the early 1960s. Everywhere else the LIRR used the traditional automatic crossing gates although I can't rule out that there was another manned crossing somewhere on the system at that late date. Hicksville was a busy junction station (still is) and sometimes the crossing men would half lower/raise the gates if trains were expected close together. Just enough to let cars past but low enough to enable them to quickly lower the gates. I think I recall a small shack near the crossing next to the station. I am pretty sure that they also still had the old diagonal crossing signs. My HO layouts have always featured a crossing with manual gates and diagonal signs even though the era is around 1960s NY Central.
Back in 1972 I rode the Reader RR in Arkansas quite a few times. Several times the train was met at some rural grade crossings by an employee who drove to those locations and flagged the train across without stopping. Other crossings relied on a set of crossbucks and the beautiful Nathan chime whistles.
oldline1
I think this is what is happening because there is always a pickup or car parked close by. I don't know about the cost of such an operation.
For many years Lakeshore drive in North Fond Du Lac was flagged. I remember when they put in lights and gates. He had a shack between yard tracks. It was the late 80s when his job ended.
I followed a Huron & Eastern train from Bad Axe to Sebewaing, MI once - the brakeman/conductor drove his pick-up from point to point to throw switches, etc. Didn't flag crossings but could have if necessary.
Since the end of the days of the watchman's shack ended, I think the only flagging you would see would be done by a crewman. I can't imagine a railroad would hire an employee to get in a car and drive ahead of a train to flag at grade crossings so the train didn't have to stop. The cost of paying someone to do that would quickly become much higher than the cost of installing automated grade crossing signs.
I think you're right about leap frogging to flag the crossing. I suppose that's better than havin a crew member do it. Thanks.
The era of each major crossing having a shanty for a crossing guard is before my time, although a surviving crossing shanty is in a guy's backyard back in my home town.
I have seen protected crossings in a number of situations. E.g., where a train is being run on track which is sufficiently out of service that the crossing is marked "Exempt" meaning school buses and tank trucks and such are not required to make a ritual stop before crossing.
I have also seen protected crossings where special excursion trains are being run on days of the week where the local population might have no reason to expect a train. In the examples I am thinking of a couple of trucks would hopscotch ahead of the train.
I have seen a crew member protect a crossing where the locomotive is doing enough back and forth local switching that the crossing gates might not be deploying correctly, or the gates have been deactivated to avoid excessive delays for the traffic. The crew member did not have a sign but did have a fusee.
And lastly I have seen a crossing be protected where a truck tried to cross as the gates were lowering and by rubbing against the lowering gate actually twisted the entire signal such that the gate was in danger of being hit by a train. In this case the train would stop (including two Amtrak trains!) and a crew member would hold the gate physically away from the track and also stop traffic. Then the train would stop again and that crew person would trot to get back on board. Needless to the say the DS was unhappy with this situation and a signal maintainer got there pretty quickly
Unique!
Dave Nelson
chorister I love watching short line rr operation. It looks like many use someone meeting them to flag crossings that don't have operating signals. Can anyone shed light on this procedure?
I love watching short line rr operation. It looks like many use someone meeting them to flag crossings that don't have operating signals. Can anyone shed light on this procedure?
Usually a member of the crew can "flag" the crossing to make sure traffic is safely stopped, of course this requires stopping the train to let the guy off and waiting until traffic is stopped to pull onto the crossing and pick them up again.
If you're moving slowly and another guy in a vehicle can leap frog crossings ahead of you, he can do the flagging before you get there and do the same thing but keep the train rolling. As soon as the train occupies the crossing the flagman can take off for the next crossing.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
I think he means something different: someone meeting the train at the crossing, to flag it without anyone on the engine having to stop it, get off, lather, rinse, repeat.
I saw this done with vehicles on the South Brooklyn Railway (which is where some NYC subway equipment is delivered). If you have an employee in a vehicle like a hi-rail, he can go to crossings, check them, and flag more efficiently than he could if riding the train.
I actually remember manned crossing towers -- there were two of them in Hackensack on EL. What I remember was they were elevated (to give more road and sidewalk clearance) with elaborate wooden gates across the lanes of the crossing. I thought of these as being as great a wonder as the operating wig-wag on the Erie Northern branch in Northvale.
At one time, crossing tenders were quite common. Many were also railroad employees who may have suffered on-the-job accidents, relegating them to less demanding tasks that at least afforded them enough wages to still be self-sufficient.I have only a couple of signalled street crossings on my layout, but most of the rest, in urban areas at least, have a small shanty affording shelter for the crossing tenders...
For the crossings with working signals and gates (the latter are not yet installed and neither the signals nor gates will actually be operational), I built a couple of these structures. The crossing tenders here are not required to flag the crossings, but do use a chain & pulley system to raise and lower the gates, much as I remember them at several crossings in the city where I once lived...
Many of the rural crossings on my layout are neither signalled, flagged, nor otherwise protected, save for the crossbucks and a whistle from approaching trains....
...sometimes with serious consequences...
...although no one was injured (other than some chickens) in this incident where a pick-up truck, headed to market with some live chickens, stalled on the tracks. The two occupants of the truck were attempting to push it clear just before the low-speed impact.
Wayne