Bachmann HO "disaster crossing"

[wiley209]

I just got an interesting accessory for the new HO layout I am building. It was made in 1982 and was available until 1985, IIRC, and is called the "Disaster Crossing":

How it works is that if the car is on the track, the train is supposed to stop before hitting it. Then once the car is pulled away from the crossing via the two truck, the train will move on again. An N-scale version was made as well. Rumor has it that this product was discontinued for being deemed "politically incorrect" or something (I'd like to find out more about that!)

However, this did not come with instructions. The box says some assembly is required, but I am not entirely sure how to do so. If anyone has instructions for this, I would like them please!
(This will be installed as part of "Stage 2" of my new layout; I will make a separate thread about that.)

[richg]

Bachmann had one.

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscaleaccessoriesandkits/id64.html

Have not seen any instructions so far.

Rich

[wiley209]

Bachmann had one.

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscaleaccessoriesandkits/id64.html

Have not seen any instructions so far.

Rich

Yes, mine is indeed Bachmann's version. I think it was the only kind on the market, as Bachmann claimed it was "exclusive."

[richg]

I have the N scale version. It's kind of neat. IIRC one of the rails is split and there is a slider underneath that spans the rails, with a metal clip. When you move the car out of the way the slider engages the clip under the rails to complete the circuit and allow the train to pass.


Found the above in a search.

Rich

[J3a-614]

How it works is that if the car is on the track, the train is supposed to stop before hitting it. Then once the car is pulled away from the crossing via the two truck, the train will move on again. An N-scale version was made as well. Rumor has it that this product was discontinued for being deemed "politically incorrect" or something (I'd like to find out more about that!)

Stop the train to pull the car out of the way?  Bah, what fun is there in that? 

More fun to send the car flying off the pilot!!   

Something that was funny, although maybe it shouldn't have been--but at one time, trolley modelers and steam road modelers didn't always get along too well, even when both were working on a club layout.  There was a description once where on such a layout, operated by a pair of groups like that, there was a grade crossing with the steam road that also featured the trolley line.  I don't know how the wiring was set up to control this crossing (this was decades before DCC), but in any event, it was not uncommon for trolleys to stall on the crossing as a "steam road" train was approaching.  It didn't help matters that very often the steam train was a long freight headed by a Bowser Challenger that was nicknamed "the lead pipe."

There would be hollering and yelling as "the lead pipe" not only was headed for the trolley, but would be accelerating as it did so. . .

The club had a surplus of trolley parts. . .

[electrical whiz kid]

Per the location of the warning lights.  Is there any particular reason you have located the warning light/sign where it is, or is the road located in UK?

Rich C.

[wiley209]

Per the location of the warning lights.  Is there any particular reason you have located the warning light/sign where it is, or is the road located in UK?

Rich C.

For some reason that is where you are supposed to install the warning signal on the base. I suppose I could use it as an "extra" signal of sorts, like at some real-life railroad crossings I've seen:

[electrical whiz kid]

Rather interesting waste of time labour and materials on the railroads' parts...

Rich C.

[AGSB]

4 gates stop idiots from driving around the barriers when they are down.

[Doneldon]

4 gates stop idiots from driving around the barriers when they are down.

AGSB-

I'm not so sure. I've seen people thread their way through some pretty complete barricades to avoid
having to wait for a train. Keep in mind that even people who are too dumb to realize how dangerous
it is to take a chance of getting hit by a train are still smart enough to defeat the appliances installed
to protect them from themselves.
                                                     -- D

[jbrock27]

Don't know if I would use the word "smart" as part of that observation Doc.

I agree with AGSB, those people that do that are idiots.  But then again, that is what Darwin Awards are given out for.

[wiley209]

Rather interesting waste of time labour and materials on the railroads' parts...

Rich C.

You mean the short gates? There was actually an accident there in 1998 when a teenage girl was hit and killed by a speeding train; one train passed and she rode around the gate, unaware a second train was coming. They even have a small memorial near the crossing still.
Or the way they placed the signals?
The MBTA owns this crossing; most of their crossings use gated signals, and many of them have the cantilevers, but not this one.

But anyways back on topic, that information richg posted seems to help. I will investigate it a bit more. It does have a single wire sticking out with some kind of unusual clip. I'll try to get a picture of that.

[Doneldon]

I guess it's time for a confession of sorts although I had no part in making any decisions connected with the story I'm about to tell.

Long ago -- the spring of 1959 to be exact -- the Grand Trunk was running a railfan special with a Northern through the town where we lived at the time, Valparaiso IN. Well, my older brother, at 16, talked our Dad into letting us take his new Bonneville to see the train, along with the also brand new B&H 16mm electric eye movie camera. The usual rules of don't speed, only you can drive the car, keep your eye on your little brother, etc., applied. This didn't turn out to be the wisest decision my Dad ever made.

We went to see the train with one of my brother's friends. Fortunately, it was the one headed for Carlton College so my folks thought he must be a good, responsible young man. Well, my brother thought it would be great to film the loco at speed, especially the valve gear. That meant chasing the train out of town while filming. My brother's friend didn't know how to run the camera and I wasn't deemed up to the task so it was decided that my brother would film from the back seat while actually sitting on the window frame of the door behind the driver. I was 11 so it was my brother's friend who was to drive. That was just fine except that we were going to use a fairly obscure road which was unknown to the proposed driver. Oh, yes. I was sworn to secrecy upon pain of death.

We ran parallel to the train for about a mile as the train picked up speed. The train was to our left which is why my brother was using the left rear window. The driver kept pace with the Northern as it accelerated. It was great. For a while. Until the driver realized that the road was going to make a sudden turn across the tracks. There was no road ahead of us or to the right, just fences and farm fields, so my brother's friend floored the Bonny and made a hard left on two wheels in front of the big roaring locomotive. My brother was nearly whipped out of the car by the G-forces but somehow he stayed with us and didn't even drop the camera. We clearly made it across or I wouldn't be telling this story for the obvious reason.

Yes, we made it. The lark immediately became one of the coolest things we had ever done but it still had to be kept secret, now upon not only pain of death but pain of excruciatingly hideous death. We all had some yuks and then went home. A couple of months later we had developed several rolls of movie film and, as was the family's wont, we got the projector out one evening to view them. Things were going along pretty well until we got to the part where we were chasing the train.

Of course, my brother and I had forgotten all about the footage until that very moment. For some reason, my Father asked me, in a very cold voice, who was driving the car. I say "for some reason" because he knew it wasn't me and it should have been up to my brother to answer the question. I suppose I might have inherited the honor either because my brother was not expected to give a truthful answer or because he maybe wasn't going to live long enough to answer.

So I said, "Well, it wasn't me." This was the truth, of course, and my best effort to remain loyal to my secrecy pledge so as not to be slaughtered by my brother. Unfortunately, my Dad didn't seem to care about any of that, and he asked me again who was driving, adding that I would seriously regret it if I tried to give a smart answer again. So I said, "Bob Brown."

The interrogation took much less time than it takes to report it so we were just getting to the part where the camera began flying every which way, briefly showing the front of the loco looming over us at close range as we scooted across the tracks in front of it. I had forgotten (repressed?) just how close that loco was until I saw the film. Wow. It was really, really close. My Dad then asked me who was taking the pictures, perhaps assuming that it was me. But it wasn't, you know; it was my brother who was falling out the back window under the speeding train while his unauthorized friend was at the brand new car's controls.

I almost lost my brother that night. I think he may still have scars. I was viewed as an innocent bystander without responsibility for what happened but I was grounded forever anyway. I didn't know if that was because I hadn't somehow prevented the stunt, hadn't ratted my brother out or just because I was there. It was clear that arguing the grounding was terribly physically dangerous under the circumstances so I accepted the punishment without comment. I suppose I learned a lesson from it but, to this day, I don't know what that lesson was.

But I have ta tell ya, that is one great piece of film!
                                                                                  -- D