I’ve seen animations - impressive…
Turn your volume down…
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/08/31/the-billups-neon-crossing-signal/
This never gets old.
Of course, in my opinion it should have been built with the Rudd-style red flashing lights on the side gantries, for the reason Rudd designed them at lower level, and it should have sounded crossing bells as well as the alert siren…
How about pendulum swinging “grim reaper” gates? I’m pretty sure Overmod would have a design in his rejected proposals file.
Rick
Man, if a crossing warning system like that doesn’t get your attention you DESERVE to get killed! [;)]
It is kind of surprising that there is no physical barrier included in the design.
Flintlock76:
I agree. Those flashing signs and the siren would get your attention. If after installation some one gets killed by not heading the warnings they definatly deserve a Darwin Award.
Ira
I guess the designer’s attitude was “Holy jeez, what more do you need?”
Not only that, the device is only on one side of the tracks.
The " Famous" Alonzo Billups, RR crossing on Miss. Hwy 7, just North of Grenada, Ms. Built by him, in the 1930’s.
Growing up a a rail fan in Memphis, Tn. it was part f the local railroad lore. The Illinois Central RR’s main N-S line crossed there, parallel to US. Hwy 51. in the Mississippi ‘Hill Country’.
Specifically, there were four trains a day, that almost everybody knew : “The City” and The “Panama”; They were both considered “Dollar Bill” runners for their schedued times, and distances between end points…
Stories abounded of them going thru those central Mississippi communities; so fast, they would suck the trash out of the ditches on either side of the ROW ! Through the towns so fast the gongs on the crossing signals would only get to half- cocked, and they were gone! Fast! You Betcha![:-^]
Which is the rationalle that caused Ole’ Alonzo to Build his Crossing… and gain his fame!
See, the problem is that you want to get people to stop for a train. Few people associate air-raid sirens with trains – if anything, they will be looking around to see where the emergency is and lose foreground attention, just the wrong thing at an ungated crossing with the familiar lights hung in a highly unfamiliar position.
I also… overthinking the thing as usual… wonder about the semantics of the little arrows. Do they mean the direction the train is going, or the direction I should look to watch out for it? This would be true even if the arrows were improved with chase lighting to catch the eye with movement.
I was upset when a small child by a neon sign at a local Bergen County restaurant (as I recall, on the southwest corner of the intersection of Rt. 4 and River Edge Road – Wayne will remember the name of the place) which featured ‘chicken in the basket’ – the sign showed three progressive frames of a chicken running and raising its wings – then smoking as dead chicken in a basket. The same thing could be done with neon arrows or other signs leading to a little neon car being hit by a train or something.
Glaring neon, even out in the country, might be mistaken for advertising signage, even if it does say ‘DEATH’ when you look at it. Like some hellacious version of the Bristol arch.
I hadn’t thought of the reaper gates, but you could dress Death as a flagman with a lantern of balefire in his hand, and swing him from a modified wigwag type mechanism. The problem is ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ and after a while Death and his brother would become the '40s equivalent of memes… I tremble to think what the local high-school students would do. And then there is the problem of false actuation or breakage leaving Death hanging in the middle of the road, the last thing the unwary of distracted would see…
The place to put union-brother Death and his animated l
Damn it, I remember the place well but don’t remember the name either! Nuts!
I always wanted to go there as a kid but we never did. I loved that walking chicken neon sign! It didn’t bother me as a kid at all that the chicken wound up smoking dead in the basket, that’s what chickens were for, weren’t they? Or maybe that’s my Italian heritage speaking, “If it’s good to eat what’s the problem?”
If the “brain housing group” kicks in and I remember the name I’ll certainly post it!
It was “Holly’s!” [C=:-)]
https://www.klusster.com/portfolios/eric-model/contents/238266?code=096be2b4-bc43-
A cetain now cancelled American comedian once said, “Give an Anmerican two slices of bread and some ketchup and he will eat anything on the planet”
Holly’s indeed it was!
They were famous for incredibly over-the-top sundaes with multiple colors of whipped cream and wacky toppings (they had a banana split with what I recall was 30 scoops of ice cream in it) and oh, how I pestered my parents to go in there… but they did not, probably for the same reason I did not get Twinkies in my lunches…
By the time I was old enough to go myself, the lure was over…
Anyone from north of the Sabine will say the same about Cajuns, except the bread and ketchup will not be necessary.
This one’s for Overmod, or any other exiles from North Jersey like the Mod-Man and myself.
It’s an article from the Bergen Record on lost Paramus NJ restaurants. Some I remember, some I vaugely remember, and some I don’t remember at all.
You may find it interesting.
As illustrated in the May 2003 issue of Trains with a wonderful color picture of the crossing in action as an Illinois Central E8 or E9 blasts by at track speed, they indicated the direction that the train is going.
There was a chicken place like that on the old route 66, Chicken Basket, I think. And another place on Ogden (route 34) when I was a kid, the Last Word. Chicken restaurants fell out of favor.
You know that, and I know that, but does the average resident or traveler encountering the thing for the first time know that?
I always thought the demise of the ‘chicken restaurant’ was largely due to the spread first of KFC and then Chick-Fil-A. Those gave consistent quality and high operating standards across the country, so fewer people would risk the older restaurants or diners. Like a non-nasty, clucking version of the Waffle House model.
In the case of Holly’s, I think the nail in the coffin was when they rebuilt the River Edge interchange so there was no easy way to get in there. After the rebuilding, by the time casual diners saw it, it was too late to exit (you used to be able to turn straight from 4 into the place) and going the other way, you had to be ‘committed’ in the right lane to be able to exit, and then negotiate a rigmarole of ramps and lights to get back over to the entrance.
Sorry, I thought you didn’t know. I only did because of that picture, since both ways make equal sense.
In reality it wasn’t important information. What’s important is that a fast moving train is about to enter the crossing in front of you. So I imagine it was just more neon to get the attention of inattentive motorists.
Perhaps the arrows could be confusing to a driver, but much like some very functionally obsolete bridges that actually are extremely safe since people are scared to drive recklessly across them, the doubt you think might’ve been created just maybe was beneficial.
If gets them looking both directions and paying more attention than they typically would, even though in reality it’s unimportant for a motorist to know if the arrow is indicating if a train is coming from their left or their right.