Here's something interesting:
It looks like a common early Lionel Crossing Gate.
But when you turn it over:
The bottom reads: "Made For American Flyer MFG Co." and "No. 4032"
About 30 years ago at one of the Cal-Stewart shows Chuck Brasher told me I should be looking at the bottoms of crossing gates because some had markings for IVES or American Flyer. Less than 5 minutes later I found with IVES stamping on the bottom. I bought that one for $5 and ran back to show Chuck. Since then, I have picked up thousands of these crossing gates. At one time I had about a dozen of them. They also come with paper stickers rather than rubber stamping. This might be the only one I have left, and I just listed it on eBay.
This one is interesting because normally the ones for American Flyer have maroon bases and green arms. All black is harder to find. 4032 means it came with a Standard gauge trip, the same thing comes with 2032 for O gauge.
Neat.
