Predictor late, train arrives at crossing too early?

[Robert Gift]

Late 1960s, in Littleton, Colorado, a five-car local freightrain proceeded south on the D&RGW track towards the Main Street grade crossing.
I believe thathe cantilevered signals, no gates, activated buthenginevereached the crossing before backing north into a siding.
A through-freightrain was coming and the local freight was getting out of its way.

Watching the through-train approaching, did it not already pass the point where the crossing signals normally begin to operate?

AM I WRONG? -I believe the crossing signals did not reactivate until the 50-mph train reached the switch, the furthermost point south on the track thathe local train had just backed from.
I recall thathe crossing signals had barely started operation before the fastrain was on the crossing.

Could the predictor of thatime have caused this happen, or was my observation incorrect?

Thank you.

 

[roee]

I doubt it was a predictor. If the train set a stick be moving in one direction, the crossing would not activate if it made a reverse move back across the same crossing. This would be a 3 DC track circuit crossing if that happened.

 

[Robert Gift]

I doubt it was a predictor. If the train set a stick be moving in one direction, the crossing would not activate if it made a reverse move back across the same crossing. This would be a 3 DC track circuit crossing if that happened.

"set a stick be moving in one direction"?
What does that mean?

Motion detector or predictor or whatever it is/was called.

I do not recall thathe local train even reached the crossing before backing into the siding. I may be wrong.

I believe thathe 50-mph train did not activate the crossing signals until it reached the last known spot of the local freight.
That location was too close to the crossing when going 50 mph. Fine if 10 mph.

Wish I could recall better. But I was not paying attention to what was happening and expecting and observing what happened.
I recall something was wrong.