Vehicle damaged by Railroad crossing guard...Railroad not accepting responsibility

So after reading a recent similar thread on here it has me wondering what would the OT do regarding my situation...Pretty lengthy so bare with me.

A couple of months ago I was in Lawtell,LA stopped at a rural railroad crossing. I'm sitting at the crossing behind a car as a train passes by in the middle of a pretty severe thunderstorm. After the train clears, the crossing guards go up and the car in front of me crosses. Simultaneously a car across the tracks from us crosses as well. As I approach to cross the tracks, the guard rail lights begin flashing and begin to come down. I immediately stop and can't get into reverse fast enough as the guards come down in a matter of seconds and one sets down across my hood. After setting down for a couple of seconds the guards pick back up to their fully upright position and remain there. No train was coming and it was obviously just a malfunction of the crossing guard system. In result my truck ends up with a nasty dent and scratch across my hood where the guard made contact. The place where I'm headed is a quarter mile down the road and when I arrive I speak with this local guy about it and he knew exactly what happened as soon as I began explaining. He tells me this crossing guard has been known to do that but he thought it had been fixed as he had not seen or heard of it happening in awhile. I look up who the rail line belongs to and call the railway company to put in a claim that very day. I get an email the following week on the railroad company's very lengthy claims process and go through it submitting all the necessary claim paperwork, proof of damage, registration, quotes for repair, etc. After 30 days my claim is reviewed and I receive this letter in the mail.

"Dear Sir, This is to acknowledge your claim filed for damages to your vehicle on such and such date in Lawtell, LA.

When (Railroad Company name) receives a notice of claim such as yours all avenues of responsibility, obligations, and liability are reviewed under the guidelines of the (Railroad company Law department). Crossing signals are very carefully designed to work properly, and after years of experience they have proven very reliable. They are regularly tested to ensure they work properly. After receiving your claim info we immeditatley began to investigate your clai. According to our records, the safety signal equipment at the crossing in question was operating as intended on the date in question. I regret to inform you that your claim against (Railroad company) is respectfully disallowed in full.

Sincerely,
Railroad company Risk management specialist."

I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar experience with something like this. I'm thinking my next step is to contact a lawyer to get this resolved. At the end of the day all I was looking for is for them to cover the repairs to my vehicle but them basically calling my claim BS really burns my arse.