Got another one for my forum friends: Is/was there a prototype for a gate or something similar to secure a leg of a crossing where two railroads are involved to prevent a train being t-boned? I have a crossing on my layout where the straight leg is a switchback for a logging spur for one railroad and the curved leg is on a leg of a turnaround wye for a tourist line and freight railroad (the turnaround is for the end of the line). It wouldn’t be heavy use on the logging spur but still I’m sure a prototype would have some sort of protection. At the very least, I would think that there should be a structure of some sort for control at the crossing. I have some building pieces that I am bashing into a guard structure. (Of course, I don’t remember what I got that package for in the first place.)
As usual, any help that the forums can provide would be most welcomed.
Often, on little used lines there was simply a pipe-like affair that would pivot to block the restricted track similar to what is shown in this Mike Danneman photo:
The rule book and timetable would provide instructions as to the approach and waiting period before the gate could be swung and locked, sometimes requiring a call to a dispatcher.
Of course, on more heavily trafficked routes, full interlocking would be the rule. The cost of manning and maintaining the crossing would usually be borne by the second railroad to arrive.
I think either one of those that Ed linked to would be very cool to model. Of the two, the tilting target signal would draw the most attention - especially if it were a working signal.
You could also use a simple ball signal:
I scratch-built one but there is a kit available for the one in Whitefield, NH.
Yes. They were generally known as smash-boards and came in various types and designs. Some looked like tennis rackets or paddles on an axis that could be raised or lowered to “block” the track. Others were indeed gates that could be swung to protect one road then the other. Of course none of them was intended, or strong enough, to actually prevent a train from going through them – they were called smash boards for a reason! But they were physical restraints across the tracks that went beyond just a light, or semaphore, or ball, on a signal mast.
The August 1983 MR had an excellent article on Smashboards. July 1960 MR has a great article on a famous example of smashboards, that being at Plymouth WI. The swinging gate type I can recall seeing at Canton IL where the CB&Q/BN crossed over the TP&W.
I have also seen a case where a split rail derail was located about 30 feet past the home signal protecting a diamond crossing (and several hundred feet before fouling the other railway). That is the only type that gives actual physical protection. Pipe gates and such will not do much to stop a train that has ignored a stop signal.
Thought I would show what I have come up with. It is not quite complete but one gets the idea:
Basic frame is 1/8" tubing with 1/16" rod in the middle to support the stop poles and the gate via holes drilled into the layout board. The gate actually swings on the rod. The locations have been checked for track clearance. Theory is that the gate is powered from the shanty. (The log cars are the main reason that I built the crossing as the track is the tail of a switchback to a logging track.)
In Bossier City, Louisiana there was a crossing between the SSW line down to Shreveport and, I believe, a continuation of KCS as a branch north of the westbound turn to cross the river. As late as the mid-1990s this was protected by a very large swing panel gate of lightweight construction comparable to that used for chain-link fencing; this was swung across from one hinge post in a ‘corner’ and then locked across the line being “blocked”. I do not remember what kind of reflectorized signage this has, and did not know if it was physically interlocked with the signal system. As I recall, it was left in whatever position the ‘last crew through‘ had used and there was no inherent ‘priority’ for SSW trains to find the gate lined for them.
