fall inside a hole

J-21 Electro Railroad Crossing (1981)

First written April 21, 2024

J-22 Elevated Station -->
J-22 Double Track Girder -->

The Electro Railroad Crossing (エレクトロふみきり) is an electronic automatic railroad crossing with dropping gates, a flashing railroad crossing sign, and a working chime. A switch on the base sets the crossing to off, auto, or on. In "on" the crossing continuously goes off until switched off. In auto, the crossing goes off whenever a train crossing it and triggers its rail platforms to fall, dropping the boom gates and triggering a switch in the base. The electro railroad crossing was first released with a green base in 1981. In 1988 when it was given the number J-21 and named エレクトロ踏切 the base was changed to red.

The boom gate arms used on this crossing are the style used in the 1970s railroad crossing and remained that style until the late 2000s when it was discontinued (when the base of the crossing was green they were even yellow to match the older style of crossing... presumably the red base was to match the "new" railroad crossing. As always, these are often broken, as seen on this early 1990s example. The little hut is removable and hides the batteries... and is often lost. The upper X part of the railroad crossing sign is also a separate piece and is almost always lost (I have one between three electro crossings).

The circuit board with a single little chip (a quad NAND gate), a small beeper, and some support components sits under the four AA batteries required to power the crossing. Wires lead off to the battery contacts, lights in the crossing sign, and the contacts under the crossing rail section.

The crossing was also released in the Tomy Train range starting in 1988. These crossings were some of the only Tomy Trains pieces manufactured in Japan.

In the early 2000s the crossing was updated slightly. The trackside booth is now screwed into place to hold the batteries more securely, and the track is marked with the new straight Tomy logo.

The mechanism has not changed much, although the circuit board has been updated and the chime sounds different. This example dates to October 2005.

In 2008 the electro railroad crossing was discontinued. I think this is a really neat crossing and its sort of a pity there is not a similar electronic flashing railroad crossing, as it is a very neat scenery piece that stands out from the "regular" railroad crossings.