by Dave Abeles/photos by the author
Railroaders and modelers alike all know the familiar pattern of a locomotive horn played with two long blasts followed by a short blast and a final long blast. That distinctive sound, universal in North American railroading, means a train is approaching a grade crossing. In fact, the grade crossing is and has always been a place where the public interfaces with railroads. Many of us had our first encounter with trains at a grade crossing. Given how common grade crossings are, adding one to my HO scale proto-freelanced Conrail Onondaga Cutoff — complete with working lights and gates — was a priority for me. Follow along as we choose a location, prepare the layout for the installation, and construct a working grade crossing.
Many factors determine the location of grade crossings. There are locations where the roads were there first and the railroad built crossings as they laid track across their route. In other spots, the railroad came first and crossings were added later as areas developed and roads were constructed.
Naturally, closely following installation of the first grade crossing were the first grade crossing accidents. Safety quickly became an issue. Important considerations for grade crossings include roadway alignment, traffic density on both the railroad and roadway, topography in the immediate area, and local concerns such as whether trains will stop for long periods of time. Urban areas often had roadways realigned to minimize the number of crossings. In more rural areas, railroads are stretched across landscapes, and crossings are simply located in the spot where the two routes cross.
For our modeled railroads, we have another important consideration: selective compression. Our railroads need to fit in their allotted space and therefore we rarely, if ever, have the luxury of lots of open running. Selective compression, used to fit all the features we want on our railroads in a smaller-than-real-life space, also compresses train activities. Long trains working yards or industries must stop and stand still to allow time to do that work. If the area includes a grade crossing, the crossing will remain occupied during the work.
For my HO scale Onondaga Cutoff, the option of adding a grade crossing in a spot where trains would sit for hours wasn’t suitable. Set in central New York State, the OC models Conrail on a portion of the former New York Central “Water Level Route” — a high-speed, high-density double-track main line. Onondaga Yard on the railroad is worked by a variety of manifest trains, some of which foul the main tracks while blocks are added or removed. Therefore, roadway crossings of the right-of-way near Onondaga Yard would likely have been grade-separated by the era I model.
Given that the main line west of CP 282 turns through the backdrop, I examined the railroad east of Onondaga instead. I wanted a spot with good sight distances despite the narrow shelf supporting the railroad and scenery, yet also one that included easy visibility for visitors and operators. However, the crossing needed to be far enough east so that trains working Onondaga would be clear of the circuitry required to make the crossing signals work properly. This limited the choices to areas close to CP 277, a universal interlocking east of Fayetteville on the OC.
As I stood trackside on the model railroad, a memory of being trackside on the prototype came to me. That spot was a grade crossing, just outside an interlocking west of Weedsport, N.Y., on the high iron west of Syracuse. This was CP 313, a dispatcher “controlled point” just over 313 miles railroad west of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Like the prototype, large signal bridges built for four main tracks cross my main there, despite the main line having been reduced to a two-track, CTC-controlled line decades earlier. Best of all, Town Line Road grade crossing is immediately adjacent to CP 313. On the layout, Highbridge Road in Fayetteville crosses the route of the OC near this location on the map. The spot would line up well, with good sight distances in either direction from the grade crossing. And the road would have to climb up and over the small backdrop ridge beyond the tracks, adding interest and helping with the illusion of depth.
Modeling a Crossing
By the 1990s, most crossings on the Chicago Line included grade crossing signal masts with automatic lights and lowering gates. I found that the NJ International grade crossing masts (no. 1164) were a nearly perfect match for Conrail’s installations in HO.
Several firms manufacture control boards for grade crossings. Based on YouTube videos and discussion with fellow modelers, I selected the Azatrax Inc. MRX3 Crossing Signal Controller. The MRX3 provides controls for the LED lights on the masts and allows for stall-type motor control of the gate mechanism as well as auxiliary light outputs. This would enable control of the gates as well as the addition of gate lights — a must for the Onondaga Cutoff, since operating sessions run through a 24-hour fast clock and include simulated night lighting…
