History of Train Cabooses | The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation

We're all constantly giving off signals. For humans, a twirl of the hair means you like someone. A raise of the eyebrow if you hear a fib. Years ago, railroad signals were much more basic, and it took a lot of manpower. But sending the signal to drop the gate got much better with the Automate. We've seen them all our lives, railroad crossing signals. What's truly remarkable is how long the signaling mechanisms we rely on today have been around. As early as the 1860s, there were patents filed for ways to create some kind of automatic railroad crossing protection. The Henry Ford's curator of transportation, Matt Anderson, walked the rails with me in the museum's Greenfield Village to tell me more about the early days of railroad signaling. Trains were around a long time before cars, so when cars showed up and came to their first active railroad crossings, what happened? Well, there were efforts to make crossings safer even in the horse and carriage days, but typically there would be a watchman physically placed at the railroad crossing, and he would actually manually lower a gate, wave a red lantern. So he could not fall asleep on the job? No. Seriously, that was really dangerous. No, absolutely. Yeah, no, very vital. But yes, as cars came on the scene, it became more popular. As you can imagine, railroad crossing accidents went up right in tandem with the automobile ownership numbers. So railroads looked for a way to automate the process. We're standing in front of a great example right here. What is it called? This is called a wigwag. Okay, a wigwag. Well, how does it work? Let me show you. Well, that motion feels sort of wigwaggy. Exactly right. That's how it gets its name. And all that motion does is just mechanically represent someone swinging a red lantern across the track. How does it know when to start wigwagging? It's actually based on electronic circuitry. And what's surprising is that this circuitry's design dates back to 1870. Yeah, this panel box is really the nerve center of the whole operation. Of the train signal? Yes, for the railroad crossing. Now, there are three circuits buried in the track, one on the approach on either side. There's a low level of electric current running between the two rails, only about two volts, not enough to hurt anybody. But anytime that current runs between the rails, it goes through the relays in this box. Now, if a train comes by with the steel wheels and the steel axle, that creates a short circuit in that circuit. The electricity will flow through the axle instead, and that causes these relays to drop, which then turns on the signal. I would have thought that this was activated by the sheer weight of the train. A lot of people think that, but no, it's not true. The track circuit is still the key component to the signaling system, but newer signals have been modernized with upgraded electronics and mechanized gates. Well, looky here, somebody left this giant fuse box open. Yeah, what we're looking at here is the electric motor that powers the gate that comes down when a train goes by. Oh, the pshh, pshh, pshh. Exactly. That's it. That's the motor, and it runs these gears, which then move the gate. And notice there's a big counterweight on the back of the gate here, too, which reduces the effort that the motor has to put out to move it. It's our first indication the train is on the way. Whoa, whoa, that thing's heavy, right? Yeah, counterweight. And then when the train goes by, it trips another circuit. All right, you can go through now. All right, and we're going to shut this thing now. That's right. Now our work is done. Good to go.