The previous gate segment was not broken any but it was too short and looked worse than the new gate segment I installed. I did this work the same day as when I extended the pedestrian crossing gate.

Rail Road St North main Street Michael's Rail Road Crossing

Michael Stevenson's Give Me a Rail Road crossing my Backyard

I was very lucky to find 2 bases on eBay a couple years back and even luckier to find 2 crossing poles at a friend’s house when I was not even expecting it, their grandpa was going to use them for lighting up a pool and didn’t know they were originally from crossing signals. You are probably not going to find a pole and base without finding the rest of the crossing signal that went with it.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals well I know where to get bases, but I’m looking for poles that have a specific size. Do you know what company makes them?

Poles are easy as they are a USA standard size.

4 inch means schedule 40 4 inch pipe and they are usually 14-16 feet tall. Schedule 40 5 inch aluminum pipe is used for gate mechanism signals and they are not a standard plumbing size but a standard extruded aluminum (Structural) pipe size. Any major company that produces extruded aluminum will make that bigger pipe but just know it costs $75-$180 a foot new. No railroad signal manufacturer I have seen produced the “pipe” that makes up the crossing mast. It has always been a manufacturer who specializes in producing extruded aluminum materials that the signal manufacturer buys from.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals Oh okay, can I have the company name?

Texas Transportation Museum in San Antonio Texas.

Sometimes they will do a cycle of going down and back up but this one was down for about 15 minutes after the storm passed and went back up without reactivating once it was drying up.

Yes, not only did I call it in but the gates went up as I was still on hold.

Bad track ballast condition. It is caused by excessive heat, rain and snow. In this case it was caused by rain and as it started drying up it resolved the problem on its own. Sometimes that doesn’t always work which is why it is still good to call it in if it is causing traffic or on a busy road.

That is due to a phenomenon with camera speed and the hertz of AC current with LEDs. They will appear off at times when they are actually on.

?

I do not change out components without reason and it is actually the opposite of having variety. At this particular crossing, I upgrade when I find newer parts or matching parts that are currently operating so not only do they all match but they operate better with matching equipment. This crossing is considered as active and used for the purpose of safety unlike the next crossing setup soon to be featured which uses a lot of the old parts that used to operate at this crossing.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals oooh so the modern stuff is used in the crossing but the other equipment will be like a working display?

I have received my equipment from several places. An NS contractor removing an abandoned railroad got me started and parts from eBay to keep them going.

And also, I don’t know if anyone has said this, but did people ask where you get the equipment?

We just set up the first signal and cabinet at that railroad museum. All is going well there so it shouldn’t be long before it is operational.

I got a majority of my equipment from an NS contractor that was demolishing an abandoned railroad and were going to scrap the signals. Offered them a bit more than what they would have gotten by scrapping them. I have also received some signals from Union Pacific and parts on eBay.

@@RailroadSignsandSignals I have one question at the end of the video in the background, I think they were three crossings do those work or they just there

Nice

That differs from a few hours to a whole weekend depending on the work being done. I have worked two straight days before (nearly 37 straight hours) on this particular setup when the relay system had to have all the wire replaced and was still having issues that had to be found and fixed. This is not the only museum I have signals at now too so I have had to learn to start working faster and more efficiently to compensate. It also helps that I have someone who regularly assists me in maintaining the signaling equipment.

two why does the bells on ring as soon as the gates rise

@@Isaactheviolinist I belive that as the gate move it makes contact with brushes or something that controls the bells.

Contact 4 in the gate mech I think

No, that track is not used which is why the gate was allowed to be extended to go over the rails. The reason the gate was extended was to not only prevent people from going around the gate by walking on the rails but it improved the operation of the S-20 gate mechanism by doing so. The bell ringing when the gates go back up is due to the bell sequence and it was chosen to alert pedestrians when the gates activate and when they go back up. When they are in the down position they can stay there for a long period of time so it wasn’t a good idea to leave the bells ringing in the down position.

​@@RailroadSignsandSignals ah ok cool thanks man

They haven’t been for a while

We were using the gold test nut in the bungalow.

No

Unfortunately no.

I cannot show complete schematics as they are classified material.

I put up a safetran and griswold crossing gates and there are no schematics. ​@RailroadSignsandSignals

❤🎉

A coil burnt out on the gate mechanism. So no its not stuck

Becuase just like with anything else the parts are bound to go bad sooner or later just like a car.

@@MSCM2000 oh

Safetran is bad because alot of there stuff just stops working over 7 years

Most of manufacturers they have things going bad so they can continue selling that's how everything goes in our world unfortunately.

Bad limiting resistor or a gate that wasn’t counterweighted properly would cause a fast dropping gate.

And wow I heard that train from the distance if you guys are near a railroad track or that is just the interstate and planes

@@Isaactheviolinistthere’s a active mainline in the background, a train is seen in. One of his videos

I post when I have the ability to. I don’t have a regular posting schedule but I do try to post on the weekend.