Manually operated crossing gates

[snavely]

I think the Bloomfield Ave. crossing of the ex-E-L Orange Branch continued to have manual gates until around 1980. Elevated shack on the north side (rr east) of the street.

[GSC]

I remember the last gates had red kero lamps hanging from the ends at night. Not during the day, or when the crossing was unmanned. Those lamps would disappear quick otherwise. The "ungated" crossings also had red kero lamps the watchman would carry as he walked out into the street with his stop sign and reflective vest. Julius Prati (LaReine / 7th Ave crossing in Neptune / Bradley Beach) would blow his whistle like a marching band leader and wave the lamp when the lights started flashing. At the time, any bells were manually rung. The flashing lights just started up when the train hit the trip , and the watchman had to be paying attention.

Steem, I remember single red lights at some of those crossings.

[MickD]

1980 on the Orange Branch ??
Was there enough traffic to justify having it manned
as opposed to a flagman??..

[snavely]

I think the train crew actually operated the gates rather than try to flag Bloomfield Ave. which has heavy traffic.

[erie910]

The E-L Pascack Valley Line had manually-operated gates at Main St., Anderson St., Essex St., and probably a few more crossings at least until the early 1970's when I moved from Hackensack to Mahwah. Employee timetables included times that the gates were operated (Monday-Friday, rush hours only), and included instructions to flag movements over those crossings at other times. Freight trains were run outside commuter train operating hours, so they had to flag all movements through these crossings.

[ExCon90]

I have a Mark I Video of the NJ&NY (I think from the 50's) showing the few Saturday commuter trains stopping and flagging; apparently no manned gates on weekends even back then.