While the last main line WigWag grade crossing device was removed back in 2021, a few persist on industrial spurs and occasionally on tourist railroads. Most tourist lines have at least one private crossing they can "protect" with a salvaged WigWag, however the method this protection takes can vary and I wanted to show examples of two different ways this plays out.
The first is at the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway, NH. There they have paired a pendulum style "[stop] look and listen" wigwag with a manually operated crank style level crossing gate. During operations a railway volunteer is stationed at the crossing to work the manual gate and trigger the Wigwag, much to the delight of the tourists. Of course being a manual operation the crossing protections are non-functional when the crossing is unattended so the wigwag, which was designed as a "magnetic flagman", is not being utilized in a historically accurate manner to replace a flagman.
The other example involves the Reading and Northern's which has installed a pair of Autoflag #5 "center harp" wigwag signals on the driveway to the Pittston Regional Transportation Centre. Unlike Conway Scenic, these are activated by track occupancy and will even see activation by freight movements which take place on a more frequent basis than passenger excursions. While they are still unnecessary performance items, the Pittston wigwags still operate in their intended manner even if tourists are not present.
So although wigwags weren't much of a thing on the old Reading System, I have to give the R&N credit for "importing" some and using them in service. This practice is similar to the R&N obtaining old searchlights and Reading used bracket masts for their CTC main line.
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