Hi all. Can anyone tell me when Canadian crossbucks went from “Railway Crossing” to the red border with no text? I’m modelling 1986 and want to stay in period.
Thanks in advance,
Glenn
When they could not decide if the sign was to be in English or French.
Rib-it Rib-it
That’s more fact than fiction !
Symbols ARE bilingual.
Mark.
Check out http://www.osbornmodelkits.com/httpdocs/ and you will get the info you want.
Symbols may be bilingual, but I still have trouble understanding the French ones. [banghead]
And don’t get me started on this "sillimeter c**p. I had enough trouble with “IMPERIAL” measurements. Just when I thought that I was home free and had it down pat, the Canadian government changed the rules and brought in “sillimeters” and I had to start learning all over again. By the way, I was born in Liverpool, England where they used to teach and use real Weights and Measures. [tup][tup]
Blue Flamer.
Looks like (per the link above) it was the “early eighties”. Canada adopted several other European standard conventions for railroad stuff, like the three-light (or “ditch light”) set-up back about the same time as I recall.
And don’t get me started on this "sillimeter c**p. I had enough trouble with “IMPERIAL” measurements. Just when I thought that I was home free and had it down pat, the Canadian government changed the rules and brought in “sillimeters” and I had to start learning all over again. By the way, I was born in Liverpool, England where they used to teach and use real Weights and Measures. 
Blue Flamer
I take it you were born AFTER the UK went to decimal currency. [(-D]
2 farthings = 1 halfpenny
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a ‘tanner’) (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a ‘two bob bit’) (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm
Ah, the good old days.
Andre
To the best that I can find, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms established in 1982 was when the bi-lingual signage began to appear.
The glitch in that is the fact the requirements were only for Federal and Provincial roadways and did not necessarily apply to individual municipalities. The railroads probably just went along and changed them all en-masse.
Naturally this didn’t happen over night and probably took into the mid 80’s before the entire required conversions had taken place. For 1986, you should probably have the red / white signage on any main thoroughfare. Small less-travelled municipal roads / private properties could easily still have the original signs still in place.
Mark.
A quick check of my scanned images (I’ve only scanned a small proportion of my slides) shows the red border already in use on October 25, 1986. I believe they would have been fairly new but none of my scans for the preceding five years include the crossbucks.
John
Thank you everyone. Red-bordered it is.
[quote user=“andrechapelon”]
And don’t get me started on this "sillimeter c**p. I had enough trouble with “IMPERIAL” measurements. Just when I thought that I was home free and had it down pat, the Canadian government changed the rules and brought in “sillimeters” and I had to start learning all over again. By the way, I was born in Liverpool, England where they used to teach and use real Weights and Measures.
Blue Flamer
I take it you were born AFTER the UK went to decimal currency.
2 farthings = 1 halfpenny (Pronounced, “hape knee”.)
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d) (I still remember the good old Thruppeny Bit.)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a ‘tanner’) (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a ‘two bob bit’) (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm
Ah, the good old days.
Ditto on the “Good Old Days”.
Born in May, 1939. Dad brought the family to Canada in '48. He had lived in Toronto as a boy and had always wanted to come back to God’s Country, as he termed it.
Blue Flamer.
I was being facetious. The first time I ever went to the UK was long after British currency was decimalized (note the spelling - that’s a dead giveaway to my country of origin).
To me, the metric system makes more sense since everything is based on 10 or multiples thereof rather than a hodge-podge of different elements. Try doing arithmetic with Roman numerals or try converting gas prices from Pounds sterling to US dollars taking into account the fact that the Imperial gallon is 160 oz whereas a US gallon is 128 oz. And then, just to add insult to injury, they make you drive on the other side of the road [(-D] . With everything measured in liters, all one would have to do is the currency conversion (currently at around $1.57 USD to 1 Pound).
At one point, the US was headed toward the metric system. I can remember seing road signs that gave distances both in miles and kilometers. IIRC, that was back in the 70’s. Don’t remember what killed the effort, though.
Andre
Just a reminder the OP question was when Canada started using the “international” red bordered crossbucks, not when Canada went bi-lingual. CN cars had French and English long before 1982.
Just a reminder the OP question was when Canada started using the “international” red bordered crossbucks, not when Canada went bi-lingual. CN cars had French and English long before 1982.
Apparently, the crossbucks have been changed in Oregon if some scenes from the made for TV movie “Ice Twisters” are to be believed (on the SyFy channel last night).
I think the more cogent question is, when did Canada annex Oregon (and presumably Washington as well)? [swg]
With respect to the movie, yeah it’s a real clunker, about on par with the movie “The Giant Claw” which saw a puppet bird pick up a freight train powered by a Mantua Shifter. It’s about 1:50 into the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUhX6lLl_Q&feature=related .
EDIT: Nope, it’s a Model Die Casting 0-6-0. Found a longer bit of footage for it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJLxc9YH5U&feature=related
Andre
[quote user=“andrechapelon”]
And don’t get me started on this "sillimeter c**p. I had enough trouble with “IMPERIAL” measurements. Just when I thought that I was home free and had it down pat, the Canadian government changed the rules and brought in “sillimeters” and I had to start learning all over again. By the way, I was born in Liverpool, England where they used to teach and use real Weights and Measures.
Blue Flamer
I take it you were born AFTER the UK went to decimal currency.
2 farthings = 1 halfpenny
2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d)
3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d)
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a ‘tanner’) (6d)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s)
2 shillings = 1 florin ( a ‘two bob bit’) (2s)
2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d)
5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s)
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm
Ah, the good old days.
Andre
Well said wjstix! CN bilingual cars date back to the 60’s. Anyway, French was the official language long before English in Canada! Just kidding!
I’ve seen many bilingual crossbuck on old 50’s pictures. On one of the arm was “Railway Crossing”, on the other one “Traverse de chemin de fer”. On this picture taken at Gare du Palais (Palace Station) in Quebec City, you can see the bilingual sign (if your sight is good enough!). Anyway, Quebec City is a strange animal in North American context since a lot of bilingual stuff always existed since railways reached this city and area. I’m not too sure how much this apply to Montreal though…
To answer the original poster’s question: I can still remember that small crossings in my hometown, a French-speaking one, had old type signal until late 80’s and early 90’s on CN Murray Bay Sub. They upgraded them with red/white crossbucks at that time, but keeping the wood pole. Major road crossing got steel poles and lights earlier in the 80’s. When they rebuilt and enlarged road 138 in late 90’s, they upgraded everything with cantilevered signals.
I would guess that these newer signals appeared at a different time depending the locale and the importance of the line and roads it crossed. I know my city was reluctant to this because municipalities must pay something like 25 000$ per year for a crossing and they got 8 of them. I wouldn’t be surprised money explain why a few took a very long time to upgrade 'cause they were just used by industries and trucks.
Matt
Just found a better picture of this old bilingual crossbuck dated September 1954:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46633980@N04/5119456424/#/photos/46633980@N04/5119456424/lightbox/
Matt
Sailormatlac said:
Just found a better picture of this old bilingual crossbuck dated September 1954:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46633980@N04/5119456424/#/photos/46633980@N04/5119456424/lightbox/
Matt
The curious part is, this sign is between 2 tracks and not near anything that looks like a road crossing - how could it possibly give a useful warning to someone approaching the tracks?
- Gerhard
Hi Gerhard,
Ahaha!!! You’re right!!! Well, you know, safety concerns in the 50’s…
According to an aerial picture, there was a service road left to the crossbuck. It joined the main road behind (which explain the direction signs over the crossbuck). Anyway, that doesn’t explain why it was located in such a dangerous place… Maybe there was an other crossbuck in the foreground not shown on the picture. This road crossed about 5 tracks.
Matt