A photo of the prototype, taken from the other side of the level crossing, shows a glimpse of a small building next to the signal box. Not possible to see what it is for. It could be a lamp store or a privy. I opted for the later.
Telegraph poles in my photograph (right) look leaning more than they do.
On this side of the level crossing the landscape both sides of the railway line is embankment. The grass here is long and dry. This is achieved by sticking old fashioned hairy carpet underlay down and when dry ripping it off. This leaves very high strands of material that is cut down using scissors. A layer of brown/green static glass is overlaid to fill any gaps and tone down the straw colour of the carpet underlay.
The white flowers were taken from an artificial plastic flower and the red poppies are proprietary scatter.
Your options for a modern level crossing barrier with skirt are either Viessmann (two barriers with operating skirt; HO gauge (ebay approx. £156 including automation) or, Peco Wills SSM 318 four barriers with fixed skirt and accessories; 00 gauge (RRP £42.85 without automation. Over £100 with automation and DCC). Are there other manufacturer options? I don't know. How hard can it be to design one with an operating skirt myself? Answer: difficult.
First I had to find a dimensioned drawing. None found but, I did find a manufacturer's brochure here that has useful images from which I could scale the barrier for a two lane road width of 112 mm.
Designing it in CAD was straightforward for me but making the skirt move correctly is another matter.
The principle of operation for the model is for each upright stay to be bent 90 degrees at the ends and locating holes made in the boom and skirt base runner.
First, I made the upright stays from bent wire and it soon became apparent that it is critical for the stays to be uniform and all the holes to be perfectly in line. Otherwise, sticking will occur.
A eureka moment solved the stay uniformity problem when I found my office staples were the right length and thickness and I had loads of them. To hold them in place I used the sleeve stripped from copper wire making sure a small gap was left between the sleeve and boom/skirt base runner. Nevertheless sticking was evident, which I thought was due to friction between sleeve and boom/runner where the sleeve had moved towards the boom and runner. A more likely cause was the holes being very slightly out of line.
Final solution was to bend the staple ends at 90 degrees leaving a small gap between the bend and boom/runner and opening out the holes on the runner. This provides a sloppy fit of stays giving them free movement. As the boom rises the skirt folds up nicely - most of the time.
This project is for my Grandson's 'plank' layout. He wanted this style of barrier and wants it automated as well!
A photo of the prototype, taken from the other side of the level crossing, shows a glimpse of a small building next to the signal box. Not possible to see what it is for. It could be a lamp store or a privy. I opted for the later.
