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Wigwag is a nickname for a type of railroad grade crossing signal once common in North America, referring to its pendulum-like motion that signaled a train's approach. The device is generally credited to Albert Hunt , a mechanical engineer at Southern California 's Pacific Electric (PE) interurban streetcar railroad, who invented it in 1909 for ...
The sign should consist of two arms not less than 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) long, crossed in the form of an . The first model may have a white or yellow background with a thick red or black border. The second model may have a white or yellow background with a thin black border and an inscription, for example, "railroad crossing", "railway crossing", etc.
The first signals employed on an American railroad were a system of flags used on the Newcastle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road in the 1830s. The railroad then developed a more effective system consisting of wooden balls, painted red, white or black, and hoisted up or down a pole on a rope-and-pulley system.
"Railroad Accessories Corporation" (RACO) merged with Griswold Signal Company in 1964. Manufacturing of crossing signals continued in Minneapolis. In 1971, RACO and Marquardt Industrial Products merged to form Safetran. Management, sales, and manufacture of crossing signals continued in Minneapolis until 2000, when the division moved to Kentucky.
Like nothing before, the Billups signal was a large gantry spanning the highway and was likely the first such use of a gantry-style crossing of the type now in relatively common use. Upon approach of a train, a giant neon sign lit up with the words "Stop-DEATH-Stop" beneath a lighted skull and crossbones .
Other names include railway level crossing, [1] railway crossing (chiefly international), grade crossing or railroad crossing (chiefly American), [2] road through railroad, criss-cross, train crossing, and RXR (abbreviated). There are more than 100,000 level crossings in Europe and more than 200,000 in North America.