Crossing Gate Towers and Shacks

I can't answer the question as to when they stopped using them. If you are interested in a model. I have the Berkshire Valley version. Nice model. Not sure of availability. 

 When I was at the Springfield, MA show. One vendor had a beautiful laser cut kit reasonably priced. Modeled after one on the NYO&W.    lasermodeling3.com

 

 

Thanks Dave, actually I was thinking of scratch building one. Just not sure if they would look right for the late 40's....

 

 

 

I agree with Hot Water as to the longevity of some of the locations.

• The height of the shanty was governed by visibility.  Railroads always constructed such structures in as thrifty a manner as possible.  If the crossing watchman could see clearly along the track in both directions from the ground, the structure was not elevated.  None that I know of had toilet facilities.  There was often a approach bell that rang inside the shanty when an approaching train passed a given location.  But not always.
• Some late-in-the-game manually operated crossings lasted in service until the crossing watchman reached retirement age.  Many crossing watchmen were formerly in train service and had incurred an injury that prevented further employment in train service, but not complete disability.

The crossing at Spadra Road, next to the depot in Fullerton, CA, had a crossing watchman in an elevated shanty, who activated a wig wag and pneumatic gates, until 1953.  The main crossings in Riverside, CA had watchmen and pneumatic gates until the late 1950's.  The main crossing in Colton, CA, had a watchman until the middle 1960's, although it had double wig wags and modern electric gates.  Pasadena also had a watchman until about 1960.

There is a grade crossing in Griffith, Indiana that I recall a watchman waving a flag as trains passed when I was a kid. I wasn't born until 1971, so the guy stay employed until probably at least 1976. The gates were automatic I believe, so I'm guessing he was on a partial disability like Tom mentioned.

 

J White

 

One of O.Winston Link's more famous locations was on the N&W at Luray,VA. He took a sequence of photos there in 1956 of an elevated shanty and also featured the gatekeeper, a colorful character named Archie Stover.

Cumberland,MD. also had a variety of xing shanties through the 1970s because of no whistle/horn zones. Most were eliminated because of bridge projects, but IIRC, the last did not go until the 1990s.

The PRR had an elevated crossing gate tower in Huntingdon PA into the mid 1950's.  Also  had flagman and shanty in Sunbury, PA in same era.

 

Ed Rappe

There is still a shack in use in Medford, MA at the crossing next to the West Medford stop on the Lowell line of the MBTA commuter rail.  The line is also used by Amtrak for their "Downeaster" service.  The guy there usually carries a red flag with yellow strips and makes sure the gates go down.

Longer than that, Ed.  It lasted into the late Sixties, when a disastrous wreck wiped it out.  It looked pretty much like the one in the Winston Link photo posted in this thread by Borden Tunnel.

Atlas makes a nice O model of a gate tower.

Did those things ever have toilet facilities?

There were some elevated shanties in Granite City IL into the 1970's, The Theresa Ave crossing in downtown St. Louis may have lasted into the 1980's, until the crossing was closed. It was a very tall, slender brick structure.

 

Dan

The Susquehanna RR has a couple preserved along the line in NY and NJ. I do not think there being used for anything.

 

Jamie

 

In the 1970s book "The RR THAT CAME OUT AT NIGHT", Frank Kyper wrote of his Boston area RRing experiences, including a stint as a Boston&Maine crossing gateman, where he had a close encounter with the Great Chelsea fire in Oct.,1973.

Still one in use today on the Powell line of San Francisco's cable cars. Don

I remember passing that crossing tower in Huntingdon when we'd go to visit my Aunt Helen.  I will confirm Balshis comment that it was still there in the mid to late 60's.

Curt

Is that what that guy is doing out there?

 

That second picture is it!  He may have another "official duty", but considering how many problems they've had with those gates over the years, that's his main purpose.  I use to sell newspapers at that dunkin donuts on sundays and I lived about a half mile down the road, so I saw that extra long gate go through many different iterations trying to make sure it operated correctly and didn't snap in half (many of which were jerry-rigged).  there's usually a stash of spare gates behind the shack because it breaks so often.  Actually in the picture you can see how they extended the pole with supports to stop the gate from blowing side to side when it was up;  that thing use to sway like crazy!

In modeling late 1940's, for sure, crossing shanties were common. As a kid, in the early 1950's, watched trains with my Dad on the Canal Street curve, just north of Chicago Union Station on the Milwaukee Road. A shanty and stop sign holding watchman protected Canal Street from the then steam-powered commuters and diesel powered streamliners. Also my kindly grandfather would take me to the Norwood Park (Chicago) C&NW crossing adjacent to the depot to watch trains. My fading recall seems to recollect an elevated shanty and a pneumatic operation for the gates, as described by Wyhog. This was in the 1950-1952 range.

I worked at the Chevrolet Gear & Axle plant on Holbrook just north of the Detroit- Hamtramck plant where you work and we had an elevated shanty with an operator on Holbrook just east of I 75 until the early 70's. That crossing had two main lines heading north and south and 3 tracks that we used for switching our 7 plants. The RR replaced that crossing with automatic gates after an incident when the  tower employee failed to lower the gates for an oncoming southbound freight on the main and it hit one one of our interplant tractors killing one employee.

Gene,

Small world, yes the intersection has been a head-ache with the semi trucks leaving the plant. (2nd picture)

On my other thread, if you go one mile south to Clay street. It seems like an apocalyptic war zone. (picture below)

 

 

When the Western Springs, Illinois Metra depot was reconstructed some time ago, a non-functional replica of the gate house was also built.

 

Rusty

Here's a beauty: C&NW crossing shanty preserved at Mid Continent Ry Museum:

 

http://www.midcontinent.org/ab...the-crossing-shanty/

When I was a wee lad, my mom and I shopped the A&P store in Etna PA which was across the street from the B&O tracks.  From my vantage point I could see the gate tower shack.  I recall dimly that the towerman pumped UP the gates, so must have been failsafe - no air/leak and gates fall.  I remember him working a long lever back and forth.  At some point after I went to college, whole setup was replaced by automatic gates complete with flashing no left or right turn lights  along street.  Last time I was in that area, setup was "improved" with traffic lights that flashed red, interlocked with gates down.

 

But very best memory was B&O transition cira late 50s early 60s,  I never knew what was coming around those sweeping curves either direction, steam, diesel or both!!

In the late fifties there was a crossing shack "manned" by a nice older woman where Military Road crossed the NYC and Erie. She would let us kids stand by the shack and watch the trains. There were no gates or signals. Just a two sided STOP sign that she held up.

That explains what I thought I saw there years ago -- what looked like an odd concrete pad on the northeast side of the crossing.

 

Another crossing tower that's still standing is the one at Orange Street in Redlands, California. The reason it's still there is because it was incorporated into the construction of the Redlands Depot. There are two towers -- the west tower being done more for symmetry than anything else. The east tower had the controls for the gates. There used to be a siding closer to the passenger shelter and one on the north side of the remaining track at one time.

 

As of 1952 Los Angeles Transit Lines trolley lines still had several railway crossings with a shanty where the trolley waited for a green flag from a flagman before crossing the railroad.  The Southern Pacific crossing at East Main had a classic little shanty with peaked roof and wooden canopy over the door. I wish there was a photo online. Photos of several trolley crossings with shanties appeared in a 1952 Railroad Magazine article titled "Los Angeles Transit".

 

I imagine these manual crossings disappeared when automated crossings were widely accepted or in this case the trolleys were gone and the watchman was redundant. For many LA trolley lines this was 1955.  

 

These shanties are kind of like sidewalk newsstand huts that once were common too.  But we took them for granted and didn't notice there passing.

The NYCRR had two on Detroit's east side.  One at Mt. Elliot and the other at St. Aubin, I think they lasted up to ConRail....

 

Marty

I found a great crossing gate sign to add to the layout.

 

 

 

 

A great topic J. Daddy and great photos. and info. from you and others, on this forum.

I like shacks, shanties, or whatever else they are called, whether ground level and/or elevated.

They were predominant years ago and in my opinion added that finishing touch to a railroad crossing.  I see very few now-a-sayS, but in abandoned condition.

Ralph

 

This crossing in Lansdale PA was one of the last two in the US to have manually controlled crossing gates due to the complexity, surviving well into the 21st century (2007!).

 

 

http://articles.mcall.com/1997...-crossings-box-septa

 

 http://www.trainweb.org/phillynrhs/RPOTW071007.html

There are a few good shots of the crossing tower at East Grand Blvd in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge in the Green Frog DVD Detroit Passenger trains.

 

Jeff C

 

 

J Daddy, love the pic of crossing gate sign. There's a laser cut shanty that's available that's a good stand in for the one pictured. Can't remember the maker but it's an easy scratchbuild as well.

 I have a book on my favorite RR. The Boston & Albany. They had a unique crossing sign. After some thinking. I decided to copy the pic using a copy machine. After some experimenting I finally got it close to size for O scale. It was just a matter of cutting out the printed portion and gluing it to some basswood. After the basswood is painted it's hard to tell how it was made from a normal viewing distance. The sign pictured was a simple post with a basswood sheet. The construction involves basically gluing the signage to the sheet and then trimming along the pictures edged line and gluing it to the post. I was able to get a unique looking sign with lettering I couldn't produce. In fact. What appears to be weathering. Is straight from the copier.

 The sign in your pic. Is a nice straight view. You could probably use the same method.