Hello All,

 

Other than Peco and Ratio are you aware of any manufacturers that produce realistic level crossing gates. (eg, Chris Nevard's photo of the Calcott layout) is an example I'm looking for. Did Crossing Gate design vary between the Big 4?

Cheers

Craig

Craig

Pm Chris he can tell you if he scratchbuilt them or bought them as a kit.

cheers Brian

As well as the ones you mention there is Dapol: -





Dapol Level Crossing Kit

and also Wills

 

Wills Level Crossing Kit

There is not really a standard level crossing gate as they all varied depending on how many tracks they needed to cross and the width of the road.  They were mandated to have the red disk and lamp on them though so they were all fairly similar.

Model Signal Engineering have white metal and brass kits of various company level crossings.

 

David

There's also Hornby - they offer a couple of different crossings, and several more variants in past years - check swap meetings if you can. They have/had both single gated and double gated crossings.

For my money the Wills kit looks the best out of the box item but remember that unlike some it is a kit and requires some assembly and painting to look like Chris's picture.

Level crossing gates did vary between the Big Four but as noted above also varied tremendously within one Company area.

The common format of two gates of equal size either side of a two-track railway gives a nice geometric square, and in some places (including where I live now) a railways level crossing is referred to as a "Rail square".

Life isn't always so kind.  Many crossings were on single track lines.  Where a narrow road was also involved, or perhaps only a farm track, then one single gate either side of the line might be used (see both of Chris's illustrations) but in some locations two small gates were used.

Where the railway was rather wider than the roadway the gates would still have to meet in the middle when opened to road traffic and it was not unknown for a level crossing to have two wide gates either side of the track which closed against and parallel to each other || style when blocking the road.  The same would be  true for locations where a wide road crossed perhaps a single line of railway and the gates then closed against each other across the tracks but formed a single wide barrier __ to prevent road traffic proceeding.

The legal requirement for a red disc to be displayed centrally across the roadway when the gates were closed (it didn't matter for the railway as that was usually fully signalled)  and for red lamps - usually oil lamps - to be lit after dark has also been mentioned above.

Where double gates were used each had a semi-circle of the red disc fitted so that when closed the two halves presented a red disc with a slight vertical gap down the centre to oncoming traffic.  The red lamp would be mounted so as to be in the centre line of sight for approaching motorists, or in the centre of a single track road.

It was of course possible for both road and rail to have curved alignments over a level crossing and also for rail to have the point blades of a junction within the crossing itself though this was avoided where ever possible.

Many level crossings have separate pedestrian footpath crossings fitted with wicket gates and also interlocked with railways signalling.  The signalman would close the road gates and at the same time operate a locking lever which applied to road and footpath gates.  The rail  signals could not be cleared until this locking had taken place.

Thanks for that info Rick - very informative and useful.

 

I have also mentioned before but will just mention it again that the legal requirement for level crossings in the UK is that they are closed to road traffic at all times and only opened when a road vehicle needs to cross.

To be open to road traffic all the time and only closed when rail vehicles need to pass requires an exemption from the act which is granted by the Department of Transport.

Of course today with many automatic barriers etc there are many thousands of these exemptions!

Just speaking to my friend who was a signalman in the Denton area including Edgeley  Junction boxes from 1949 -1970, the road was always open with the gates closed to trains until required to allow trains to pass.

Like many others as well Ron, but to do so an exemption was and still is required.  It is the norm now for it to be the other way around but the exemption is required for every crossing where that is the case!

Somebody also recently said that it was still legal to hunt welshmen with a bow and arrow on one day a year too.

Provided the bow is of the required length and curvature and the string is of genuine dragon gut I don't think there is a problem :roll:

Seriously guys there is truth in that rumour :exclam:exclam

It is still legal under English law on one day of the year, at one specific spot on the English side of the River Severn banks, to shoot dead with a longbow any Welshman that comes within range :exclam:exclam:shock::shock:

Can you imagine an Englishman being daft enough to stand there shouting across the river "O mate, are you Welsh" :question:question (Well  …. um  … yeees, I can actually) But even more absurd can you imagine Taffy on the other bank, seeing the longbow shouting back "Aye Boyo, I am see, so take your best shot, isn't it" :roll::roll::roll:

Daft buggers, these English law makers :exclam:exclam

[user=3]Gwent Rail[/user] wrote:

Daft buggers, these English law makers :exclam:exclam

Unable to decide the veracity of the law, it was sent to a committee for review.
A subcommitte was formed to establish if it was still possible to get Dragon gut bow strings and if so was there a possiblity for further import taxes to be imposed on the Welsh. Etc, etc. 
You know how these things go. :thud

I used a secondhand Model Signal Engineering kit on CaTcott which could be used to represent several different companies (LSWR etc). Sorry I don't have the packaging any more. Andrew Hartshorne at Wizard Models will be able to advise.

Some mesh from a dressmaskers was used to represent wire mesh

Easy to get Peco ones if similarly treated can looks good too - seen here on Combwich:

Lovely shots, Chris. [I trust you enjoyed your ride ;-) ]

 The mesh looks fantastic. I must get some.

Mike

Cheers! I think it's the sort of thing that get used on wedding dresses etc. MSE did supply some, but it was way to coarse and would have been better for Gauge 1!

A couple of lovely shots there Chris and they illustrate my descriptions perfectly.

One shows a single-gate crossing with a central red disc and warning lamp mounted centrally to the narrow lane; the other shows a pair of gates with the half-half red disc and the warning lamp positioned for the mid-point of the oncoming traffic lane and not centrally across the width of the entire roadway.