We unveiled the Cross Hare prototype at the 2016 Amherst Model Railroad show. Needless to say, the flashing bells and lights with animated crossing gates produced a lot of positive comments and interest by fellow modelers. Larry Maier, our design and development engineer, explains the basic operation of the Cross Hare for protecting your model highway crossings. Tony's plans on having the Cross Hare available late Summer/early Fall 2016.

Cross Hare Features:

  • Selectable incandescent or LED flasher simulation
  • Selectable continuous bell or, bell only on during gates moving down and moving up but silent when gates are down and not moving
  • Selectable single or dual sensors at the four end locations. This allows you to wire two sensors in series at either end to trigger crossing from side tracks, converging routes, yards, etc. where appropriate
  • The dual sensor capability also allows a potential four track crossing if you double up all sensors (total of 16)
  • Train can move either way through the crossing and the Cross Hare will keep track of the correct logic
  • 25 second time out if the train triggers the crossing but fails to reach the road - this will set the sensors to maximum uncover delay to allow switching movements
  • Will re-trigger the crossing any time the train is near the road after the 25 second time out
  • Timeout to reset the logic if there are no sensors covered within a 2 minute window from the last active sensor
  • Once triggered, the center two sensors will always trigger the crossing until it is at rest (time out or last sensor covered and uncovered)
  • Adaptive sensor delay - measures the train speed and then adjusts the sensor uncover delay to allow for open cars up to 9" ( more than 65 feet prototype) of open space
  • Once the crossing is triggered, the remaining three sensors are calibrated to the existing light conditions; the first is calibrated when the train resets the crossing
  • All sensors calibrated to existing light at power up or reset