Crossing gates

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

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Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

Good morning, we have a set of real crossing gates and lights, lights function, there are no gears to control theses gates, they are controlled by air pressure via a Bima Piston to close the gates and a counter weight to raise, they work but not reliably, looking for suggestions for better operations.
Thanks
Geo 🇺🇸
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
ccvstmr
Posts: 2229
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:37 am
Location: New Lenox, IL

Re: Crossing gates

Post by ccvstmr »

Geo...without a photo or better description regarding the unreliability...it's hard to understand the problem.

However...here's some thoughts...
1) use a double-acting piston. Will need some controls and pneumatic valves to drive the gate down or up.
2) if you want to get away from pneumatics, could use a gear motor with slow rpm and some controls that allow the motor to turn 180 deg. and then stop until it's time to raise the gate(s). You didn't say if the gates were tied into a track detection circuit or not.

No matter which method you use (above or other), you'll still need those counter weights to balance the weight of crossing gate and any lights or other hardware mounted on the gate. Hope this helps. Carl B.
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Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

Hi , Thanks for the reply , I won’t be able to get pics until the end of Oct. I suppose a good size damper motor would run on 24VAC could work, but that may be to slow, I like the double action piston, right now we control a relay from a remote garage opener and button, it does the job but the whole setup is getting very tired.
Geo 🇺🇸
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
STRR
Posts: 469
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 9:01 pm
Location: Westminster, CO

Re: Crossing gates

Post by STRR »

When I built my crossing gate, we could not use air as it would freeze up in the winter cold. I chose to use a DC gear motor controlled by an Omron timing relay. The relay is tripped by a magnetic switch, which lowers the gate. When the gate is all the way down, a lever on the motor shaft trips a switch to reverse the polarity of the power to the gear motor. The relay is set with enough time for the train to clear the crossing. When the relay times out, it activates the power to the gear motor to raise the gate. When fully raised, the lever on the motor shaft trips the switch again to reverse the power to the original polarity.

Our train takes 2 1/2 minutes to go around the house and runs for 5 hours every night from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1. The crossing signal has been in operation since 2003 with just one problem: The bell ringer wore out and had to be replaced. Otherwise, no problems at all.
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

What kind of DC gear motor did you use? Really just looking for ideas at the moment , can you take some pics of your controller setup, we have limited space.
Thanks
Geo 🇺🇸
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
STRR
Posts: 469
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 9:01 pm
Location: Westminster, CO

Re: Crossing gates

Post by STRR »

I used a Baldor, 1/4 HP, 90 VDC, 20 rpm output, right angle gear motor, with two output shafts. It was sourced from eBay. Omron H3CA-A timer relay and a Minarik M21001A motor controller were among the electronic components used. I chose the Minarik to make it easy using 120 VAC input converted to 90 VDC for the motor.
Signal Arm Down.jpg
Signal Arm Up.JPG
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

Looks nice, we have 2 gates with 12’ arms on real crossing equipment, everything has been gutted out and Mickey Moused, I can only post pics after the end of Oct.
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
STRR
Posts: 469
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 9:01 pm
Location: Westminster, CO

Re: Crossing gates

Post by STRR »

Granted, I built this kind of to scale for an 18" railroad. You can see the base plate is bolted to the auxiliary base plate with wheels to make it portable. The original base plate is for mounting on a concrete foundation.

If your gate is balanced, it should not take more than 1/4 to 1/2 hp to raise/lower it. Being gutted out, makes it easier for you to put in whatever operating system you desire.
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

Thanks for the reply, I’ll keep you posted , it may take awhile.
Geo 🇺🇸
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

041B23C3-94D3-4C96-B018-3345F1F15BD1.jpeg
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8ECD5B80-2586-41DF-893A-25BD1E0B9C7F.jpeg
Hi All, just got some info back from one of the volunteers, what we have are 2 Traffic Control boxes , inside there is a Bima 1” piston connected to the gate arm shaft, air supply from a portable air compressor controlled by a valve operated by a relay. It works but the gate arms bounce when down and not always reliable. We have limited resources and the equipment is quite old, 1 gate (South side) has the compressor and North gate is supplied by tubing underground along with some low voltage wiring for the lights and bells.
Looking for any thoughts on how to improve this, possibly gear drive motors or better pneumatics
Thanks
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

I have another question in regard to balancing the gate arms, the way I have
done it is that when the arm will rest at a 45 degree angle it should fine.
Any thoughts or suggestions.
Thanks
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
Geochurchi
Posts: 153
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:49 am
Location: Concord ,NH / Naples, Fl

Re: Crossing gates

Post by Geochurchi »

Hi, another question, what type of control do you use to flash the lights?
Geo 🇺🇸
If it ain’t broken keep working on it until it is .
Geo 🇺🇸
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