Was it possible to make the crossing arms come down by shaking the pole?

Question

Back in the days when the wires to control the crossing signals were on telephone poles someone said that they shook one real hard and it made the arms come down.

Answer 1

Railroad signals are regulated by the Federal Government (The Federal Railroad Administration), and tampering with a railroad signal is a federal crime, so don't even...

Answer 2

As a locomotive engineer no shaking the arms cannot make them come down. They are controlled by electrical currents that run through the rails and once the wheels of the train makes contact with the rail within a certain distance of the crossing depending on the speed they will go down. and to prove what I'm saying is true you can take a piece if band iron and have it make contact with the two rails near a crossing and the gates will go down but then u will interfere with the signal system and u dont want to do that

Answer 3

It might have worked, but for one thing you'd have to be an elephant to shake a RR signal pole enough to cross the wires.   And for another it's a federal crime to mess around with RR signals.

Answer 4

It's because Railroad crossings are "fail safe".  I'm not exactly sure what they call it.  But when something happens to it, say shaking the pole, when the signal thinks its either being vandalized or malfunctioning, the gates come down, lights start flashing and bells ring.

(edit) I didnt mean how you read it.. I mean if something goes wrong they always go down to the safe postition, which is the lights flashing, gates going down and bells ringing.  But yes the guy below me is right about only looking and listening is the safe way to cross.

Answer 5

its not really possible, because of the hydraulics used to lower and rise the gates. you would have to do something to mess up the hydraulic system to get them to come down without a train coming

Answer 6

Nope.

And, with apologies to the gentleman above, crossing protection IS NOT FAIL SAFE.  Believing it is can get you dead.

Two times in my own career I ran freight trains at maximum authorized speed of 40 mph over crossings where the crossing protection was INOPERATIVE.

LOOKING is the ONLY way you can cross ANY railroad tracks safely.

Answer 7

If somethign was broken it might have happened, the arms are activated by the approach of railway equipment, there are sensors called anticipaters located in the tracks themselves. If the train stops the arms will come back up and then down again when the train starts moving. Anything is subject to malfunction so no telling what may happen. And as for hoghead's adivce, right on, if you even remotely think crossing protection is "failsafe" you will die. They are built very very good but nothing is failsafe.