This article is examining Crossbuck Safety, comparing different crossbucks used around the world, to see which might be better and which might be worse. Crossbucks are the simplest kind of railway level crossing warning signs.

Contents

1 Example level crossings 1.1 First example - England 1.2 Second example - America 1.3 Third example - China 1.4 Fourth example - Somewhere 1.5 Fifth example - Finland 2 Ranking of example crossbucks 3 Help needed 4 See Also

Example level crossings

First example - England

The first picture shows a crossing at Chertsey, England.

The background is cluttered but because the boom barriers are striped with a dark colour (red) and a light colour (white) some dark parts of the sign fall against a light background and visa versa, and therefore enough of the picture can be interpolated to conclude that it is a level crossing.

Second example - America

In the picture from a city in the U.S., the gate arms are striped red and white with either paint (the old way), or reflectorized material (current standard).

The crossbuck background is either white paint (the old way), or a white reflectorized material (current standard), with non-reflectorized black letters. Some antique U.S. crossbucks were painted with ordinary paint in other colors (yellow, black), and used glass "cat's eye" reflectors on the letters to make them stand out.

If the sky where cloudy white, then the white crossbucks might be invisible, were it not for the fact that they are reflectorized.

Third example - China

The third picture is from China, where they do follow a lot of American practice. The white (or are they red and white ) boom gates are reasonably clear against the blue sky, but what about a white or grey sky.

.

Fourth example - Somewhere

The disadvantage of having a square background is that if the lighting of the sign is wrong, the message of the sign is extinguished. Rectanglur signal are generally of low priority compared to Octangonal Red stop and Standing Triangle Giveway signs, and Diamond yellow hazard signs.

.

Fifth example - Finland

The Finnish sign as shown in International Railway Journal has a extra "half-crossbuck" parallel to and beneath the normal crossbuck. It is not clear why this is there? It might indicate that there is more than one railway track.

.

Ranking of example crossbucks

• First example - England - ??
• Second example America - ??
• Third example - China - ??
• Fourth example - Somewhere - ??
• Fifth example - Finland - ??

Help needed

• More examples of pics of level crossings

• get the text to line up with the corrosponding text better.

• can the rather small pics have larger version, all the better to see some of the detail with?

See Also

• Hixon rail crash - (1968)
• Gerogery level crossing accident - 2001 - 5 young boys killed.
  • Gregory "Watchful"
  • Gerogery "Death Trap"?
• Ufton Nervet rail crash - (2004)
• Glendale train crash - (2005)

• Crossbuck

• Safety orange