Nostalgia & History > When Did Crossing Gate Arms Go from B&W to R&W?

I remember as a kid seeing crossing gates with arms that were pained alternately with black then white paint... Today the pattern is the same but the colors are red and white. When was the change made. Here is an example of the former at Caron QE im August 1984.

Sneebly

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Around 1973, IIRC. Same time highway barricades went from black/white to orange/white.

With the advent of color TV?
Gonut

My first sight of red-white gates was on the Rock at Marsailles(sp) IL., around 1973.

Chico
http://www.heartlandrails.com

When 3M "Scotchlite" came into use; as everyone said previously (early seventies).

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

They also used to have cylindrical lights that pivoted and swung down when the gate came down.

Sneebly Wrote:
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> Here is an example of the former at Caron
> QE im August 1984.
>
> Sneebly

You were actually on Ile Perrot, just west of Montreal Island:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=45.396695,-73.964167&spn=0.005635,0.009613&t=h&z=17


Ray

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
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> They also used to have cylindrical lights that
> pivoted and swung down when the gate came down.


...and way back when they were kerosene lamps. I recall these at grade crossings in my home town of Whiting, Indiana. The gates were actuated by a watchman who would also flag the crossing with his kerosene lantern.

I've attached an admittedly poor cell phone camera photo of a Buda (I think) crossing gate of this type preserved at The Whistle Stop restaurant and museum in Francesville, Indiana.

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SCL1517 Wrote:
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> Around 1973, IIRC. Same time highway barricades
> went from black/white to orange/white.


Actually, in the movie Duel from 1971, the crossing gates in that movie were red and white.

I also remember the crossing gates in downtown Marion, Ohio, when I was a kid when the crossings had a combination of both black and white gates and red and white gates.

Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html

When I hired out with C&NW in 1971, I'm pretty sure that almost everything was red/white. They had been black-and-white in my remote corner of western Michigan in 1970, I'm pretty sure. It's possible--likely, in fact--that the changeover was mandated at about the same time as broken center lines on the highways switched from white to yellow, yield signs switched to red and white, and the pictograms for school zones and crossings began to appear (and, yes, the highway barricades changed to orange and white). This was later than the 1971 date I cited, but I suspect that some municipalities or states may have brought their gates into conformity ahead of the nationwide adoption of the standard.

The answers to the question may vary depending in which state the respondent resides. In California (my state) I think they began to change over in the late 1960s, but there was still one B & W xing gate in Emeryville that lasted into the 1980s. In the 5th grade (1954) I remember my teacher telling the class that only in California were the highway lines only white. She told us (to our amazement) that all other states also used yellow paint. California joined the majority a few years later.

And by the way, those corner U. S. mailboxes used to be red and blue. They changed to solid blue in the 1960s.

Westbound Wrote:
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> And by the way, those corner U. S. mailboxes used
> to be red and blue. They changed to solid blue in
> the 1960s.


Seems to me if you go back far enough, they were olive drab, or maybe those were just the boxes that were used to pre-position main for the carriers.

Growing up, one of my closest friend’s dad was our mailman and he told me the green ones were storage only. Now this was the 60’s but it may have been different earlier.

Steve

My admittedly vague memories are that mailboxes were olive drab for most all use. I remember the red/blue boxes, but I thought they appeared about the same time as Kennedy, and they didn't last very long and were replaced with all blue. I have a vague memory that the larger red/blue boxes had a white stripe, making them very patriotic, I suppose. This was in So Cal, first in LA and then the Ontario area.

Crossing arms were black/white for so long around here that your posting startled me. When I think of any of the crossing arms there used to be around here, I visualize them as black/white; I drive through several every few days, and I had to think to realize that yes, they are indeed red/white.

I don't recall orange stop signs; I think that the Calif Auto Club (who used to put up most street signs) had long standardized on octagonal red/white for stop signs and diamond yellow/black for warning signs. There were also occasional rectangular yellow with black lettered signs from earlier eras, they were replaced by diamonds as time went on. I do recall when the red/amber/green top to bottom light order hadn't been standardized. Along with semaphore arms on the stop lights and for truck turn signals, the later typically white with lighted amber inserts.

You see a red and blue mailbox in the opening of Get Smart (mid-1960s)

Sneebly Wrote:
. Here is an example of the former at Caron
> QE im August 1984.
>
> Sneebly.

When did St. CUM (sorry AMT)bus shelters go from coffee brown to red. Nice old bilingual crossbuck.

I guess when the Santa Fe ran out of black paint... Another aspect that I noticed about the Santa Fe crossing gates years ago... was that the bells would ring until the gate was fully lowered and then would stop ringing.. The SP ones ran continuously..