Automatic Crossing Gate. Any suggestions.

Lionel Mainline.   Three wires.  Red/black and yellow.   Yellow goes to insulated rail.   Red and black to power.  Very simple

Any application that uses a pressure switch can use an insulated track section and relay instead.  That way, there is no weight adjustments to be made, with the attendant mental stress, and the operation will be more reliable and exact.

Simply, you can wire the track section and relay to operate when there is a train car present. More sophisticated schemes will allow a locked-in relay, and a release relay. This type of scheme, and similar ones, will allow realistic operation regardless of train length.

Hi Manny,

I have several different crossing signals.  Two include crossing gates.  I typically use insulated track sections but have used the "pressure switch" contacts.  You are right that the pressure switches are finicky.  They are affected by the weight of the car passing over it.  A locomotive will activate the switch then the hollow boxcar following will not be heavy enough and the gate will start to rise only to drop down when the next heavier car arrives.  Insulated tracks eliminate that problem.  I picked up the crossing gate with lights on e-bay only to find that the lights don't flash!  They both stay lit while the gate is down.  I thought about adding the flashing circuit from the Highway Flasher to get the light to flash, but that's a project for another day.

You can buy insulated track or build your own.  It's pretty easy with tubular track.  I can provide some info if you're interested.

John

I plan to use Lionel's Fastrack grade crossing with flashers and gates. I want to know if there is a way to wire the lights and gates to a fixed 12-14V power supply. It should be possible.

The last batch of Lionel #262 type gates actually had electronic flashing circuits in them.  I was as surprised as anyone upon hooking them up!

Jon

Got a crossing gate set for Christmas.  It came with a modern Lionel pressure switch.  Couldn't get the pressure switch to work properly no matter how I adjusted it.  Absolute junk.  Dug out one of the two old pressure switches I had as a kid in the fifties.  Worked perfectly.

https://ogrforum.com/...7#155716354528554267

John

Mannyrock,

Seem to recall you have traditional Lionel tin track. My advice is whatever version of signal you use, ditch those pesky pressure plates and use an insulated rail section for activation.

Those old school pressure switches will make you crazy. I never use them!

@Vinny26 posted:

Lionel Mainline.   Three wires.  Red/black and yellow.   Yellow goes to insulated rail.   Red and black to power.  Very simple

Some are five wire.  If Mannyrock is setting up a temporary layout the OLD pressure switch works very well.  Because the parts are heavier duty than the new ones the adjustments are more accurate.

John

First thing to do would be to purchase some of the very helpful "guide"- type books that are readily available. Those should pretty much explain everything.

Mark in Oregon

@Dylan the Train Man posted:

I plan to use Lionel's Fastrack grade crossing with flashers and gates. I want to know if there is a way to wire the lights and gates to a fixed 12-14V power supply. It should be possible.

If you're talking about 6-12052 there is a youtube video which suggests you splice your 12-14V external power into the red wire that comes connected to the "hot" center rail.

Jump to 7:40 in the video if the link doesn't automatically start there:

Perfect, thanks. Sounds easy enough (if you know how to solder).

Good point; at the price point of the item it surprises me they did not pony up the ~25 cents of connectors/components to allow the user to use either track power or external Accessory power like they do for so many other track pieces.

I suppose you could cut the red wire, strip it 1/4"-1/2", twist-wrap it to a similarly prepared wire carrying your 12-14V power...no soldering that is.

Thanks for all of this great info!

Sounds like the insulated track route is the way to go.

I will study up on it, and proceed from there.

Mannyrock

@Dylan the Train Man posted:

Perfect, thanks. Sounds easy enough (if you know how to solder).

Soldering is a skill we all should have; it's not difficult and once you get it down, you'll wonder why you didn't learn it sooner...🙂

Mark in Oregon

OK Guys, it looks like I can construct a piece of insulated track very easily.

So, it looks like the Lionel Mainline gate is the way to go.

But, Vinny, am I to understand that if I get the Lionel Mainline gate, I don't need to buy a relay of any kind?  I just hook up the wires as you described?

Thx,

Mannyrock

As cautioned earlier in thread, be sure you get the 3-wire (not 5-wire) version.  The identical SKU (6-14098) was used but the installation/wiring instructions changed.

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For example, right now on eBay, if you search for "Lionel 6-14098" there's a pre-owned unit auctioning but a photo clearly shows 5-wires.  There is nothing in the listing description that otherwise tells you this.  I looked at some of the New-In-Box listings (only external photos) for 6-14098 and there's no obvious (to me anyway) indication of which version you're getting.

Of course if the price is right, it may be worth $10-$15 for a relay module (no soldering required) that would effectively convert the 5-wire gates(s) into 3-wire gates!  There have been many OGR threads on using a relay and insulated-rail triggering to drive 5-wire gates.

Here’s mind

@Mannyrock posted:

OK Guys, it looks like I can construct a piece of insulated track very easily.

So, it looks like the Lionel Mainline gate is the way to go.

But, Vinny, am I to understand that if I get the Lionel Mainline gate, I don't need to buy a relay of any kind?  I just hook up the wires as you described?

Thx,

Mannyrock

no relay is necessary.  As was said   Make sure you get the newer ones with just three wires    You will not believe how easy they are to install    

Thanks Stan and Vinny!