Crossing gates, Shirley, MA

I was stopped near the Paterson St. crossing (?) in Shirley yesterday and the gates kept going up and down. Sometimes one car would get through then they would go back down then go back up again before even going all the way down. This went on for a good five minutes. What gives?

"Hi...my name is Allen Funt... see that mailbox over there? there is a camera inside of it... you are gonna be on Candid Camera ...."

Over the summer, Guilford was checking the guage of the track where I was. They take this metal bar, and place it on the tracks to make sure the rails are spaced within a reasonabe threshold. Whenever they placed this bar within the crossing circuit, the crossing signals would activate. When they finally realized this, they cut the wire connecters that connect the crossing circuits and there wasn't a problem.

Most likely a "track circuit". A section of the line shows the track occupied
meaning that the signals show a stop indication and the gates go down.
In this case it would be an intermittent one, in other words the affect signal(s) keep going from clear to stop and back to clear. This would also
affect the gates.
Could be a number of things that cause this condition but it is a job for a
signal maintainer to take care of.
In CTC territory, these conditions should show up on a dispatcher's board.
Noel Weaver

First off, the track, crossings and signals are owned by the MBTA and maintained by its contractor - MBCR. Not Guilford.

Sounds like an intermittent track circuit. Also could've been a GRS freight in Ayer shifting far enough west towards Shirely to activate them. But that would've triggered Walker Rd. also.

Dave

I've seen that once before. I think it was at the Willows.

It's funny I was up in Bow on Monday the 9th to look and see if there was a Bow Coal train (which there was not) and the crossing lights (and bell) kept going on and off (near Québec Cement). However there was no train around. I wanted to tell someone but didn't know who, I thought of telling the police but I figured they wouldn't want to be bothered by it. Are crossings (with lights etc.) logged into a central data base or something so they know when they go on and off, or if they're not working properly, like that of an ATM machine? If they're not, who do you notify if they're not working properly?

b&m 1566 wrote:It's funny I was up in Bow on Monday the 9th to look and see if there was a Bow Coal train (which there was not) and the crossing lights (and bell) kept going on and off (near Québec Cement). However there was no train around. I wanted to tell someone but didn't know who, I thought of telling the police but I figured they wouldn't want to be bothered by it. Are crossings (with lights etc.) logged into a central data base or something so they know when they go on and off, or if they're not working properly, like that of an ATM machine? If they're not, who do you notify if they're not working properly?

In signaled territory such as CTC where there is a dispatcher's model
board for the line, an activated crossing signal would likely show up as a
track circuit on the dispatcher's board and he/she could summon a
signal maintainer to correct the problem.
In non signaled territory such as manual block, yard limits, secondary
track, running track etc, there would be no dispatcher's board so a bad
crossing signal would not be detected unless reported by somebody.
Generally, if you call the police, they would know just who to contact.
Noel Weaver

Bring back the Gate Tender..
http://rjgrubin.rrpicturearchives.net/s ... ?id=255885

rjgrubin wrote:Bring back the Gate Tender..
http://rjgrubin.rrpicturearchives.net/s ... ?id=255885

Brings back memories, I still have a set of the cranks (one set marked NHRR) used to operate the gates....

The shanty may not be as large as the present passenger shelter, but it seems the shanty does have the advantage of having something other than air in the window sash.

Also, theres snow/ice/water on the ground and of course, they salt the crossing. And what did we learn in high school chemistry? Salt, when dissolved in water, splits into their separate ions, and will conduct electricity! It could be that the gates are being tripped by the salt. (Usually it trips signals)