The James River Branch Z Scale Model Railroad: Detailing

Railroad Avenue Grade Crossing Flasher

I was nearly convinced that I'd shot myself in the foot. In my rush to build and install the Railroad Avenue Crossing Shanty, I'd left no room for a crossing flasher. When it finally dawned on me that I'd screwed up, I wasn't about to dig the shanty foundation out and move it—much less move it any closer to the edge of the layout.

So I just tabled the whole problem and moved on with other things, confident that a solution would emerge at some point. And that's what happened. I figured there had to be similar situations in real life, where a conventional flasher wasn't practical owing to unusual circumstances such as obstructions or close clearances.

A cantilever arm flasher seemed to be the solution—I'd planned on having a cantilever from the outset, anyway. My thought was to have flashers on just the cantilever arm, since lights on the main stanchion would be obstructed by the crossing shanty.

The thing is, every example of a cantilever flasher I've seen had lights on the main stanchion in addition to the lights on the cantilever—or so I thought. Turns out I'd not only seen one with no lights on the main stanchion, but I'd even photographed it, just a few miles up the road from where I live.

Things would still be really tight. The pole would practically touch the shanty, and there'd be precious little clearance with the track. Still, the track was a disused siding, so I didn't need to worry about trains actually hitting it, and only the sharpest of eyes might notice things were a little too close for comfort.

From there it was a matter of finding the raw materials to fabricate the signal. I had an idea that I might find some etched brass structure or detail kit parts that might serve for the cantilever bracing, but despite having over a hundred kits, I could find nothing suitable. The Internet helped me here by providing photos of simpler designs that I could make with brass tubing and wire, plus a ladder and some grille material for the catwalk. Hopefully I could find something to use for the targets, at least.

The Railroad Avenue grade crossing poses a bit of a problem for flashers.

This crossing in Lakewood, NJ justifies the kind of flasher I needed.

Found on the Internet, this simpler design will be adopted for the model.

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