Modern RR Crossings

Hello all! Hope everyone is well. In the Modern Era Group... someone asked about modern crossings. I was unable to post pics there... so, I decided to start a new thread here. Here, are my two crossings. One is on the mainline with a major road. It has lights only. The other crossing is for an industrial spur... so, no lights... only RR cross bucks. Also, I have a scale figure that I made a red flag for. When the industry gets service, the crossing must be protected. It added another dimension to running trains. It also has the side benefit of "slowing down" switching... so, crews just do not bang in and then bang out! Feel free to post pics of your crossings! Enjoy! JMS

 

Nice! Are those BLMA concrete grade crossings or did you make them yourself?

 

They are BLMA crossings. I painted the edges grey(where the metal casings are), then scratched them up a little and weathered them. JMS

 

The sidewalks are sheet styrene that came with the grid pattern already "scored" into it. I cut it in widths of two squares for the main sidewalks. Little alley way sidewalks, or a short sidewalk around a business... I cut it only one square wide.JMS

 

What is your technique for roads? Very impressive work!

 

Thank you! As for the roads... I start with foam board. I roughly cut out how I want the road to go. I then attach the foam board with glue and screws(don't worry about the screw heads showing). I then use a floor leveling joint compound(from Lowe's) and cover the foam board with it. I use a scraper(several with different widths) to level the main road surface and create the drop offs on the sides of the road. I then sand(with different grits of paper) the top of the roads until I get a smooth, yet rough looking, surface. I then paint the roads black. I then lightly sand the roads again. I then take a 1 or 2 inch brush and brush the roads with cigarette ashes(from friends who save the ashes for me). The last step is the striping, stop lines, direction arrows and crosswalk stripes. I use styrene for these... as when I tried to mask the road with tape and paint the lines... the paint bled because of the uneven road surface. I used thin strips for the lines...either painted white or yellow. I cut strips out of sheet styrene for the stop lines and crosswalk stripes. The direction arrows are also cut from sheet styrene. Once everything is glued down... I take my 1-2 inch brush and just brush the roads again w/o using anything but the brush. This "weathers" the lines a little bit from the cig ashes still on the road. It also pushes some of the ashes to the very edges of the roads... which create a gravel/dirt/road crap appearance on the sides of the roads. Seems like a lot of work... but, I have been happy with the results! JMS

 

Thanks Tom! I do not seal it. I tried that, but the dull coat made some of the ashes' weathering effects to disappear. The funny thing is... I got that idea from watching my friend drop ashes on his jeans, and then, rubbing them into his jeans. I saw how the blue went to a dirty, faded blue/grey. I stared at it for a second... he made a joke about me staring at his... well, anyway... and, then, it just clicked! That would be great for asphalt roadways! So, I cleaned out one of his ash trays... and the rest is history! LOL! JMS

 

Crossings

There are several RR crossings on my railroad. One on a main highway has signals that come on when a train approaches.
The signals are operated by sensors in the track

 

What signs and sensors are you using? I have a crossing I'd like to wire up.

thanks for sharing all this.

 

For my crossing, I used this...

http://www.circuitron.com/index_files/301cat.pdf

Page 18 has the "crossing circuits". Hope this helps. JMS

 

Here's a crossing that's very similar to the one in the OP:



It's at the UP's J Yard in Los Angeles.

 

Roads

For the roads on my railroad I used scraps of 3-Tab roofing. Under the road I used cork roadbed then the roofing was cut to match the cork base. I turned the roofing back side up. Contact cement was used to "stick" things down. A black latex paint followed. The stripes are four inch scale decal. Solvaset was used to set the decals. After everything was dry I sprayed the road with several coats of Testors "Dullkote"The gravel on the side of the road is "N" Scale ballast from Woodland Scenic's and it was glued usint the bonded ballast method.
For gravel roads I used the same "N" Scale balast then "drove"the cars on the road before gluing it using the bonded ballast method.

 

I do wish Bachmann would have a modern crossing for their EZ track...

 

I am assuming(I know... bad.) that a "level crossing" is the Aussie equivalent to the U.S. "at grade crossing". If that is the case... I used a "circuitron" circuit diagram and built it myself. Post #12 has the link to the site. It uses 6 sensors to operate it. If you look at the attached image(made with MS Paint... so, kind of crude) The green sensors activate the crossing, and the red sensors stops it. The red sensor has to be covered and uncovered to stop the flashing. The blue sensors activate a 5-6 second "kill switch" to the green sensors. This way, the train(esp if just one loco/one loco and one or two cars) does not activate the crossing again. The image is not to scale, but gives you an idea of how I placed them. The flashing rate is adjustable. Also, the guy who designed the circuit added a "resistor board" circuit to add if your crossing is in a low light area. Also, he added a "capacitor board" circuit to add if you get electrical interference that causes the crossing to activate w/o a train crossing the sensors. I had to add the "capacitor board" as I kept getting interference. I run DC, so, I cannot say if it will work with DCC... but, I assume(again... bad) that it will for it doesn't use track power or voltage sensing tech to activate. Hope this helps. JMS

 

If its Dcc you want, aztrack (dunno if I spelled it right?) Has a board for about $30 uses 2 sensors.

 

Nice! Like the weathering on the UP unit too! JMS