After we left the waterboggan we headed towards the front of the park to get something to eat but the crossing gates were closed for a long time before the train got there. Why would they close them for so long?
Most likely the train ran out of steam. Even if the train is still pretty far away they are not allowed to let the crossing bars raise, most likely for insurance purposes.
It could be a lot of things. We sat on the train itself, at the old hold-up, one time, because they had to drive an ambulance into the park for someone. It got hot sitting there in the sun, not being allowed to get off the train to walk around (which would have been cool). The performers needed a contingency plan for such an event. Finally the conductor read to us from the SDC brochure.
Maybe someone on the train needed such help and they were beyond a point where the arms could be raised. Who knows. You can figure they wanted to raise the arms even more than you did though.
I've been on board when the train has run out of steam (me being the steam enthuist that I am, calmly explained the engineer's mistake to my annoyed train companions) conductor Sam and the robbers switched hats and lines...pretty funny