Grade Crossing Flagman Or Guard Shacks - Street Watchman House - Plan - 11/10/1906 - 5'-4" x 6'-0"

Discussion in 'Right of Way' started by yardmaster, Sep 19, 2017.

  1. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Folks,

    Have nearly finished building a crossing flagman or guard house/shanty/shack.

    While I'm using Frisco drawings from around the site, I can't find any prototype info on placement from track center line.

    I've looked over plenty of photos from the Barriger collection and could probably eyeball a good enough placement, but I'd like to try to adhere to Frisco prototype practice.

    Thoughts?

    Best Regards,
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 23, 2024
  2. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    The last one of those I saw was down by the main depot in Springfield.

    I never saw one in use, but that one stayed well into the 1970s.
     
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  3. geep07

    geep07 Member

    Are you using a crossing gate in addition to the shanty?

    I would locate the building line of the shanty behind and off set to the gate! Otherwise place the shanty the same distance as the crossing gate/signal.

    That should be good enough as they say!

    John
     
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  4. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    The State both picks and pays for a signal crossing.

    It goes off of accidents. If the crossing has new gates and bells the railroad would abolish the crossing man.

    The State also pays for the new crossing and labor.
     
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  5. geep07

    geep07 Member

    Prior to the removal of crossing shanties, some of the shanty tenants operated a crossing gate.

    Frisco may not have had these but some railroads did. The MoPac had an elevated shanty located at Macklind Ave. The guard operated a crossing gate, it was air powered. They may have had one at the Kirkwood Station also.

    Okay Ken W. throw in some of your knowledge here!

    John
     
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  6. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I don't know any of the specifics about crossing shanties, but I know that the MoP crossing of Kirkwood Road at the peak of Kirkwood Hill, next to the Kirkwood depot, was a fascinating place as I recall.

    There was a tower there right across Kirkwood Road from the depot that was more than a crossing shanty. Also I think there was a water tower, turntable for the commuter trains, sidings for helper engines, and several other facilities. We used to go there to watch trains at the depot, and I must admit, I paid little attention to the rest of the location.

    I also recall watching trains at the Frisco Webster Groves depot, combining that with a visit to the O-gauge layout in the depot.

    K
     
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  7. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    I remember the one at Macklind.

    There was also an elevated shanty at Big Bend before the grade separation. It controlled the gates at Big Bend and also Sutton Ave. I used to hang out there and the guy would let me ring the bell and pump the gates up and down.

    Great place to watch the trains go by.
     
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  8. geep07

    geep07 Member

    Don,

    Wish I was driving a car when I was twelve.

    Riding a bike only took you so far. If my dad found out I rode my bike past the limits, he took my pedals.

    Indeed there where a lot of great places to watch trains go by.
     
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  9. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Fellas,

    Thanks for the suggestions, background and stories - they are all greatly appreciated.

    In the category of "shoulda included this initially", I'm constructing one of the non-elevated, non-gated crossing guard shanties. It would look like a single-occupancy outhouse if not for the windows and the smoke jack for the stove. Basically a shelter for a crossing flagman to stay warm and dry.

    I like modeling the warmer, mid-to-late spring months so my flagman will be sitting/standing outside, probably chatting with a few of the town loafers.

    Best Regards,
     
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  10. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Somewhere around St Louis when I was a kid, I think around the Wagner Electric plant on the Wabash RR, I saw an elevated crossing shanty that looked like the one Revell offered in HO years ago - yellow and gray, with a tall smoke stack.

    When I saw the Revell model, I had to have it as it looked so much like the one in my memory. I built three of them, the last one went by the by in our estate sale binge last September.

    I can't believe that was a year ago - I still suffer from the memory of it!

    K
     
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  11. gbnf

    gbnf Member

    A modeling project in HO by Michael Holt appeared in Vol. 8, No. 6 of the Frisco Museum All Aboard magazine, Nov-Dec 1993, pages 8-11.

    Photos and Frisco drawing included, with O, HO and N templates added. Placement can be inferred from the photos, and appears to be informal. Drawing date 10 Nov 1906, photos 1910-1917.

    http://condrenrails.com/Frisco/Frisco-Museum-All-Aboards/AA1993.11-12.v8.6.pdf
     
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  12. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    I'll have to confess something that my Mom & Dad would have grounded me till I was 65 if they knew.

    I grew up in Maplewood and spent almost all of my time hanging around the MP Maplewood depot watching MP steam since Mr. Hungerford ruined my life on the Frisco. One day, I got a wild hair. There was a pathway next to the ROW, so I started riding my bike east. The crossing watchman at Ecoff Ave told me "Be careful on your wheel by the tracks".

    East from there I watched an Alco switcher working at Macklind Ave. Got on the street there and rode down to Compton Ave and the MP roundhouse which was in full swing then. My cousin worked there and he took me on a tour. Full of steam. Not satisfied with that, I continued east and crossed the river into E. St. Louis, don't try that now, and checked out the NYC and IC roundhouses, both in steam.

    Then I rode home and acted innocent and nobody asked how I got so dirty and greasy. When I was 5, I rode my tricycle over to the Fyler Ave bridge and visited my brother in law's brother. They called Mom, who was frantic by then. Dad was eastbound on a troop train and they handed a message up to him at Cuba that I was AWOL. Burned up the rails getting home. By that time I was back home and in deep doo doo.

    It must have been hard being my parents.
     
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  13. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Wow!

    What bridge did you ride over to get to East St, Louis?

    None of them put you out on the east side in very nice places.

    K
     
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  14. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    Geez, that was 62 years ago.

    Whichever one came out near Relay depot on the east side.
     
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  15. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Had to be the Eads or the MacArthur, the "Free Bridge).

    Golly, I wouldn't want to ride a bike over the MacArthur ! I recall working a start-up in 1964-65 at our plant in Sauget, IL. I had to drive over the MacArthur Bridge each evening at 4:00 pm rush hour for the 2nd shift, and then return home around 1:00 am-2:00 am in the morning. Scary getting on the bridge, then crossing it, and then getting off of it into St. Louis!

    I recall all that thrill was for the bargain price of $0.15.

    K
     
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  16. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Don, you're grounded.

    No leaving the layout room until further notice and until some more photographs of Newburg show up. And I hope you will have learned your lesson.

    Somewhere I have a map that I bought of Railroads in St. Louis. Would have loved to have traipsed around the whole area like that, especially in the steam days.

    I'm also wondering how they handed up the note to your Dad - on the fly?

    And, what form would they have used, if any? :)

    Best Regards,
     
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  17. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    Probably just a "note", hooped up.

    At any rate, he was said to have cut in the afterburners. He said one soldier said he had ridden across the country and that was the wildest ride he'd ever had.

    Said he thought Casey Jones was dead.
     
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