Berkshire Junction flashing crossbucks in HO

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello,

I was just curious if anyone has the Berkshire Junction flashing crossbuck in HO? They don’t have very good pictures on their website and was hoping to view some closeups. Opinions are welcome too.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

2

I have some, they look fine to me for the location on a module I was modeling. Not too thrilled with the detection system. I ended up going with another brand of detection and signals. I will be using the Berkshire Junctions on my home layout though. Here is the only image I have of mine, hope it helps.

Rick

3

Rick. I was hoping for a bit closer photo. [:)] Thanks for the opinion on the detection system. They sell the flashers without so I will probably go that way and find somthing better.

Peter

4

Whenever I install my wigwag crossing signal, I’m going to control it with an on-off switch although I’m not sure whether it will be a simple switch or controlled by DCC. It is cheap and reliable as the train operator. The street crossing will be immediately next to a run-around track, and I need to turn the thing off when a car or locomotive is parked adjacent. There won’t be any through trains either because the road crossing will be within two feet of track’s end. I’d do it the same way even if there was through traffic.

Regardless, it seems to me detectors can’t be further than one train’s length apart. If trains might consist of a single locomotive or a Doodlebug, wouldn’t detectors be needed every 8 or 10 inches, or even less if the equipment was very short?

Mark

5

Peter,

I have some of the Berkshire Junction crossbucks installed on my HO-scale Black River Valley Railroad layout. They have been in use for about 3-years now without problems. I opted for the Infra-Red detection system because I wanted the crossbucks to operate in the dark.

The crossbuck are made of brass and plastic with red LEDs. They look pretty good to me.

I have a short “How To” on my website that shows how I did my installation. This is a link to the website: http://www.intergate.com/~acoates149/index.html

Once on site, push the “How’d You Do That” button, then scroll down to the picture of the RR crossing and click on the picture.

Hope this helps.

6

Allan,

Thanks so much for the response. The picture of the crossbucks was a bit blurry but I can see the quality is there. Great tutorial too.

Peter

7

Mark

I opted for Logic-Rail detectors, they are photocells that fit down in between the ties. They also have instructions for using self-contained infrafred emitter/detectors. They use four photocells, two on each sice of the crossing, once a train crosses the first it sets off the signals. If the train doesn’t cross the second one, right next to the crossing, within a specified time, the signals turn off. Very useful if a train has pulled up short of the grade crossing to stop, like at a station. Unfortunately they can only be used with signals wired a certain way, like Tomar.

Rick

8

Rick, detectors are needed some distance from the crossing so that motorists have advanced warning of an approaching train. It does no good to start lights flashing so late as when the train is already there. And then there is the directional issue. While advanced warning is needed for an approaching train, motorists want clearance as soon as the last car passes.

Mark

9

Understood, the prototype looks for 20 seconds advance warning. The Logic-Rail detectors are set to give a lot of warning, maybe not prototype, but ample enough for model RR use. Again, the signal starts as soon as the very first detector is activated, from either direction. Once the circuit is activated, it will stay flashing until the train crosses the second detector, the one closest to the grade crossing. It stays activated until the train passes the last detector, that is the major deviation from prototype as the flashers could keep going for a while after the train clears the crossing depending on how far out the detectors are. It could be a single engine, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t require all dectectors to be covered simultaneously.

http://www.logicrailtech.com/

Rick

10

I went from Berkshire Junction to Logic rail and I will never look back. I had some problems with the board on the Berkshire. I sent it back for a replacement and they did just that w/o a problem. I had it for another year and another problem so I switched. I like the Logic Rail becuase you can add options like a bell and operating gates. Look at their website you will love the way they work.