Motorizing a NJ International crossing gate

Is there something i can use to motorize arms in a NJ International crossing gate?

You can buy the equipment that would allow a tortoise switch machine to operate the gate. We bought one for the R&IT, one of these adapters will work bothe gates on a crossing.

Chris

Chris- we should get boblenon on here to explain how he did it! Do you know what parts were ordered for our grade crossing project? That would probably help Andy out.

-=otto=-

We are using the Circuitron stuff:
- http://www.internettrains.com/cigaac.html
- http://www.internettrains.com/cicaacforret1.html

With the first item there is hardware for mounting a tortise and attaching a cable - to which at the other end you mount an acctuator under the crossing gate and attach the arm. The second item is a second acctuator (if you have a crossing gate on both sides).

I have gotten one gate almost working. It is hard to install beause there is a track running directly underneath the grade crossing (otto....).

As for activating the gate - right now I have the tortise wired to a switch-it. Via software, I can setup the gate to throw based on block detection. Eventually, we want to do something to flash lights, make noise and preferrably activate the gates based on IR.

I also belive that NJ International provides links to a couple of other solutions.

-dave

Yeah, what boblenon said (I'm his evil apprentice).

It took quite a bit of tinkering. What I would suggest is locating the signal where you like it, and making sure that you have a secure attachment point under the layout for the actuator. Homasote would work, but I'd suggest trying to screw into wood.

Try to keep the actuator wire as straight as possible. Avoid as many bends as possible. It took some 'experimenting' to find the proper location for our actuator, and this resulted in a bends, then straightening, and another bend. This eventually weakened the wire enough that it'd flex and possibly jam on something. What I came up with was finding a piece of brass tubing just slightly larger than the actuator wire, and slipping it over the actuator wire, then bending the wire and putting it into the actuator arm.

Whenever I decide to install a signal gate or seahempore signal on my modular layout, im gonna locate it at a WOODEN location to save myself the difficulty in locating.

Also, if you will be using the remote actuator (allowing you to locate the tortoise up to 18" from the actual signal), try to keep the distance between the actuator and the signal as short as possible. This will result in smoother operations.


I hoep this makes sense. Our signal looks pretty awesome now. I'll try to take some pics before I go home, if i remember.

mike

What Mike says does make sense. When we built the R&IT, we didnt leave much space on either side of the roadbed to secure things like wayside signals. Such items are usually planned ahead, and you can usually design "wings" into your subroadbed to support signals.

The area where we are trying to install these signals isn't supported by much besides homasote and wooden framing. And oh yeah, one track is crossing right over another hidden track below! Below is a photo of the crossing we are trying to "protect." The Oregon Rail Supply crossing flasher seen at right is coming out.



-otto-

Thankfully, our entire layout is plywood, but it's starting to bend in the middle, causing uncoupling nightmares, so we're going to get new plywood, and reinforce it with steel.

Steel reinforced plywood? Sounds like overkill. All you need to do is frame out your plywood with 1x4's. But that's for another topic.

Were useing square steel poles on the edges of are club layout to prevent boing of the layout ones the problume is corrected we take them off. We have this problum mostley in the winter months.

Well, it's kinda sad when the sag is so bad, that cars just roll into the station, stop, then roll back in the other direction. Repeat this for abbout 5 mins. Yea, we want to have it cantilevered, likr the Article MR just had, and RMC had a few years back.

Here are some photos of the ongoing installation. Right now the tortise is attached to a Switch-it decoder which is thrown whenever the block is occupied.

We use 1x4's now, but they're saggin too, since they've been there for..i don't now how long!

Very nice work, boblenon and Walsh! I see you've followed the RITMRC tradition of labeling and dating structural supports for future reference ("I Cut This Board Too Short - OMV 12/15/98")! We may have to extend these gates just a little with a strip of styrene- they seem a little stubby for the crossing we are trying to protect... but, they look sweet~!

-otto-