Could a crossing gate be raised up manually by a person? Would it fall back down when they let go of it?

Question

I have been to ashamed to get down from my car and try it out plus it would probably be illegal.

Answer 1

I'm not going to answer whether you can or can't.  I will agree, yes it's illegal.  Yes, it's illegal.  Why would you need to do this?

Derail, you better not let an FRA man or a company official catch you lifting those gates.  Even if you are stopped too close, it's a big "no-no."  You could get fined.

Answer 2

Hey Rex. I'm a conductor. There's been situations where our train is stopped temporarily too close to a crossing, and I'll go and lift the gates manually for cars to pass. The gates won't lift on their own if a train is too close. On multiple tracks, I make d**n sure that no other trains are coming, of course. They do lift easily, and once you let go, they fall back in to the horizontal position.

Answer 3

Yes it could. When I was a kid, I tried it, and it was amazingly easy to lift.

Yes to your second part also. I was nice and let it down gently.

Answer 4

Yes and yes to both.

The RR's dont want them to act like guillotines in case they come down on something or someone and they will go back to the position they are supposed to be in.

Crossings are built with a very high rate of redundancy for safety sake.  

One might even say double redundancy if that wasnt repeating myself again.