We have kind of an interesting situation at a grade crossing near my house. The crossing is fully guarded with both lights and gates, but a flagger always guards the intersection when trains cross.
Granted, there's limited sight distance, but trains do run through around twice a day. It's definitely not a disused crossing.
I was just curious as to how unusual this is since I've never seen anything like that except in unguarded crossings or crossings with malfunctioning signals.
Video Here:
http://vid293.photobucket.com/albums/mm52/NetworkTV/Railroading/20150827_172939.mp4
The crossing gate goes down when the train is pretty close to the crossing, that could be why.
That is quite a video.
I wondered WHY the gates dropped down so late. That ain't the way most crossings work. I'm pretty sure there were citizen complaints about sitting behind the gates AND THE TRAIN WASN'T EVEN THERE YET--DON'T YOU KNOW I'M REALLY IMPORTANT!!
So, if the railroad accedes (sp?) to the citizens, uh, concerns, and delays the drop for the gate until the last second, it would be prudent to get a flagman out there. Why? Well, BECAUSE WE'RE REALLY IMPORTANT!
I've driven in New England, and I'm impressed/shocked by the driving habits of the residents (I live in the West). In Boston, a guy steps out in front of me without looking, and I have the light! LIKE I SAID, REALLY IMPORTANT.
I was just railfanning in Washington state, and those trains go through at 60 and up. You had better not be on the tracks. And, you know, no one is. Well, not anymore.
Of particular interest, I LOVE the little teensy "anti" crossing gate. What? It's about 6' long. THAT is SO precious.
Thanks again for the video.
Ed
PS: I was in Cambridge (sp?) last year. Ab-so-lutely way cool. I observed TWO car crashes in one day. Is that not the best? I told my California pals--big yuks!
Looks like a downhill approach to an acute angle crossing with lots of vegetation to block the view. Add in the apparently minor traffic volume. Seems like a desire by the RR to avoid grade crossing incidents and their coincident costs.
The flagger seems to be suffering from terminal boredom.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTT Looks like a downhill approach to an acute angle crossing with lots of vegetation to block the view. Add in the apparently minor traffic volume. Seems like a desire by the RR to avoid grade crossing incidents and their coincident costs. The flagger seems to be suffering from terminal boredom. Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I can only assume this is probably the meat of the matter. Also, there's the occasional bit ambulance traffic that goes uphill on that road to get to the hospital when coming from that corner of town.
For what it's worth, right before the gates were about to come down (and everyone on both sides had stopped), the Jeep off screen on the right started to go around the first car at the gate until he realized....you know, a TRAIN was about to cross. He ducked back into line pretty quick at that point.
I agree, the flagger definitely isn't nearly excited about riding on the front deck of an engine as any of us would be.
tomikawaTT Looks like a downhill approach to an acute angle crossing with lots of vegetation to block the view.
Looks like a downhill approach to an acute angle crossing with lots of vegetation to block the view.
Downhill for whom, I'm not sure. And whose view is blocked, I am not sure. But if there is vegetation and angle problems, a person could wonder WHY the gates are dropping so late. SAFETY, anyone?
A way to avoid those grade crossing incidents would be to trigger the gates earlier. Especially if there is minor traffic volume.
And yet, oddly, they aren't.
NetworkTVFor what it's worth, right before the gates were about to come down (and everyone on both sides had stopped), a car off screen on the right started to go around the first car at the gate until he realized....you know, a TRAIN was about to cross. He ducked back into line pretty quick at that point.
See my earlier comments about New England drivers.
7j43k NetworkTV For what it's worth, right before the gates were about to come down (and everyone on both sides had stopped), a car off screen on the right started to go around the first car at the gate until he realized....you know, a TRAIN was about to cross. He ducked back into line pretty quick at that point. See my earlier comments about New England drivers. Ed
NetworkTV For what it's worth, right before the gates were about to come down (and everyone on both sides had stopped), a car off screen on the right started to go around the first car at the gate until he realized....you know, a TRAIN was about to cross. He ducked back into line pretty quick at that point.
Trust me, I know.
I'm in Connecticut.
ndbprr30 years ago in Trenton Michigan Pennsylvania avenue crossed DT&I, PC, MC, D&TS all parallel to each other. The only way you could cross was to get across as many tracks as you could before another train blocked the tracks behind you in spite of the gates outside all the tracks.
I looked at a satellite view--very interesting. As is the trackage up and down from the road.
My guess is its an industrial lead, so there aren't anything but locals out there, nothing high speed at all. Rather than put in long circuits into the track, they just have one up close, the train drives up and steps on the circuit, the flagman gets off and flags until the crossing is occupied.
Could be a combination of infrequent service, high auto traffic, poor sight and stopping distances and cost to maintain a long track circuit. For a train not on a schedule, already operating at low speed, flagging some crossings isn't that big a deal.
By the way, it looked like a work train, since all the cars were the longitudinal dumps usually used for ballast.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusman My guess is its an industrial lead, so there aren't anything but locals out there, nothing high speed at all. Rather than put in long circuits into the track, they just have one up close, the train drives up and steps on the circuit, the flagman gets off and flags until the crossing is occupied. Could be a combination of infrequent service, high auto traffic, poor sight and stopping distances and cost to maintain a long track circuit. For a train not on a schedule, already operating at low speed, flagging some crossings isn't that big a deal. By the way, it looked like a work train, since all the cars were the longitudinal dumps usually used for ballast.
Yes, it's an industrial lead.
The main customer is a propane distributer.
The dump cars are rare. Usually, the only thing other than tankers are gondolas for hauling scrap steel.
Nice video, thanks.
What's the ticking sound I hear from what seems to be mostly the lead locomotive? It kind of has a pneumatic sound to it. Is it the air compressor? Or something to do with the valves/exhaust on the engine?
dehusman Could be a combination of infrequent service, high auto traffic, poor sight and stopping distances and cost to maintain a long track circuit. For a train not on a schedule, already operating at low speed, flagging some crossings isn't that big a deal.
My town had a flagger going along on the one spur through town for all those reasons. In about a mile and a half, there were ten grade crossings, some of them so close together that I can't imagine how the circuits would possibly work together.