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11 foot 8 still killing it at 12 foot 4

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 29, 2021 11:34 PM

tree68
 
caldreamer

Instead of using rope, I suggest chains.  Would make a heck of a racket bouncing on the top of the truck.  Of cousre there are the idiots who ignore the racket anyway. 

I was thinking wooden dowels.  Lotsa clatter, less damage.  Might have to replace them now and then, though.

Maybe a smashboard would work.  Lightweight plywood hanging down from a frame.  They'd take out the smashboard, but not the supporting structure.

Follow up either with a stoplight - don't bother with flashing lights.  People will still run it, but it might help.

The fellow driving the double decker bus was busy looking at his GPS, since he'd made a wrong turn and missed the bus/train depot.

The 11 foot 8 bridge is protected by a 'smash beam'.  What is sheering the roofs of the trucks is the 'smash beam' which get hit before anything contacts the bridge proper.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 11:03 PM

caldreamer

Instead of using rope, I suggest chains.  Would make a heck of a racket bouncing on the top of the truck.  Of cousre there are the idiots who ignore the racket anyway.

I was thinking wooden dowels.  Lotsa clatter, less damage.  Might have to replace them now and then, though.

Maybe a smashboard would work.  Lightweight plywood hanging down from a frame.  They'd take out the smashboard, but not the supporting structure.

Follow up either with a stoplight - don't bother with flashing lights.  People will still run it, but it might help.

The fellow driving the double decker bus was busy looking at his GPS, since he'd made a wrong turn and missed the bus/train depot.

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, July 29, 2021 10:21 PM

Euclid
All it requires is a an underpass bridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcqfa_uj2hA

 Memphis, on the line north from West Junction, shoving into a dedicated siding going  into an oil refinery.  

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Posted by ronrunner on Thursday, July 29, 2021 7:35 PM

EmbarrassedBeerLike that

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 6:16 PM

ronrunner

This is the CSX bridge in Syracuse by the Intermodal terminal

Nope - it's several miles west on the St Lawrence Sub, just north of the mall.

The coordinates will take you right to it.

As you can see in the link, it's 10'8".

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Posted by caldreamer on Thursday, July 29, 2021 5:59 PM

Instead of using rope, I suggest chains.  Would make a heck of a racket bouncing on the top of the truck.  Of cousre there are the idiots who ignore the racket anyway.

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Posted by rixflix on Thursday, July 29, 2021 5:44 PM

ronrunner

This is the CSX bridge in Syracuse by the Intermodal terminal

Your Syracuse picture didn't show up. 11foot8 is in Durham NC.

Rick

 

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 29, 2021 4:11 PM

ronrunner
I believe this is the railroads and local DOTs fault..the warning signs should be at least a half mile up the road and there should be a app

I don't know the 'lay of the land' at the 11 foot 8 bridge and where ALL the signage is placed.  I am sure there are signs well in advance of the bridge on all routes that lead to it.

In my local area there is a restrictive bridge with low clearance under the CSX Old Main Line.  One of the big box stores has contructed a Distribution Center in the near area - so near that 'civilian' GPS would route a 18 wheeler via the low clearance bridge to get to the DC.  There is signage in place at every crossroads that leads to the low bridge as well as signage for about 3 miles in each direction on the highway that the bridge goes over.  MD 75, Green Valley Road in Monrovia, MD.  https://earth.google.com/web/search/monrovia,+md/@39.37411674,-77.27563682,132.08226264a,1168.40976245d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CigiJgokCfIfz3LgcDRAEe8fz3LgcDTAGU9Oxe4GhElAIU9Oxe4GhEnA

When I was working, we would get two or three trucks a month wedged under the stone viaduct that is the bridge and it was constructed in the late 19th Century.  It has NEVER lost a fight with ANY truck.

I don't know if the 'higher levels' of GPS show height restrictions of the various bridges.  None of my three Garmin GPS units do, only two of the three identify railraod crossings.

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Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Thursday, July 29, 2021 4:01 PM

BaltACD

 

 
mvlandsw
Drivers are not the only problem. Railroaders have violently reduced the height of many cars or loads.

 

And those responsible have gotten discipline for their actions.  The same actions at the same locations are rarely repeated, unlike to folk at 11 foot 8 . com. Doing it time after time after time.

 

I guess the beatings will continue until the incidence of a low-clearance accident is reduced.  Either that or morale improves.

With respect to punishing people for getting into accidents, a railroad, at least in US and Canadian practice, is privately owned and operated, where the owners restrict who operates on their property to employees whom they instruct and supervise.   Public roads, on the other hand, are open to anyone with the appropriate operator's license for the equipment in question.

There was that accident where a motorcoach bus carrying casino patrons in a southern state got hung up on the lack of ground clearance of the motorcoach on a railroad grade crossing.  I believe there was loss of life because all the people couldn't get out by the time a train arrived.  For some reason, this wasn't the regular route taken by this bus.

Yes, the driver of a motorcoach should know the ground clearance of their vehicles and also be alert to signs warning of a crossing requiring a higher ground clearance.  But sometimes a driver takes a different route to accomodate whatever needs and interests of the passengers, sometimes the sign may not be highly visible or maybe the driver has a lapse in attention.  Sometimes one gets committed to going a certain path based on a wrong turn in traffic.

A person can blame the driver all they want, but it doesn't help to scold people after the fact.  Sometimes a combination of better driver training, yes, more rigorous law enforcement, perhaps better signs, and maybe, just maybe elimination of the hazard is called for.  If "stupid people" keep causing accidents in the same place, maybe raising the bridge is easier than fixing stupid?

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

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Posted by ronrunner on Thursday, July 29, 2021 3:45 PM

I believe this is the railroads and local DOTs fault..the warning signs should be at least a half mile up the road and there should be a app

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Posted by ronrunner on Thursday, July 29, 2021 3:42 PM

This is the CSX bridge in Syracuse by the Intermodal terminal

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 29, 2021 3:30 PM

mvlandsw
Drivers are not the only problem. Railroaders have violently reduced the height of many cars or loads.

And those responsible have gotten discipline for their actions.  The same actions at the same locations are rarely repeated, unlike to folk at 11 foot 8 . com. Doing it time after time after time.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by mvlandsw on Thursday, July 29, 2021 2:10 PM

Drivers are not the only problem. Railroaders have violently reduced the height of many cars or loads.

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, July 29, 2021 1:22 PM

BaltACD
 
tree68
 
blue streak 1

Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ? 

I think a tell-tale (also a RR item) would be appropriate - and I'd use dowels, not rope, so they made lot of noise if you hit them.  And it would be easy to replace them if someone hit them hard enough to break them.  If wood proved too fragile, then hard plastic.

 

But you still can't fix stupid.  Stupidity can overcome ALL EFFORTS to prevent it.

 

All it requires is a an underpass bridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcqfa_uj2hA

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 12:52 PM

Shadow the Cats owner
They think GPS is infallible for directions and it gets them in trouble routinely. 

Spoke with a relatively new "ham" last night who was driving a truck (I presume semi - he didn't say, just a truck) up the Interstate enroute to Ogdensburg, NY.

He'd just spoken to another local ham on another repeater, then switched over to a nearby Canadian repeater when the first was out of range.  But I digress.

The threw out a "CQ" (anybody out there?), which I answered.  In the course of our discussion it came out that his GPS had him headed for highway 401.  Cue the alarm bells.

The GPS algorithms like to send you on Interstates when available, and that's what his was trying to do.  One catch - 'the 401' is in Ontario, across the border.  And the border is still essentially closed.

His reaction tended to suggest that crossing the border wouldn't work for him.  I reassured him that the state highway he should be taking posed no problem for his truck (a concern he raised).  

I haven't talked to him since.  Presumably, he got where he was headed with no further ado.

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Posted by Shadow the Cats owner on Thursday, July 29, 2021 8:29 AM

The biggest problem with the newest generation of drivers is they're all to honest dumber than a box of rocks without any technology.  They can't read a freaking map or any high warning signs.  They think GPS is infallible for directions and it gets them in trouble routinely.  Here before we let them run loose they're literally taught how to read a map how to read the road signs especially when hauling hazmat.  Why is that so important sometimes you don't take certain roads when pulling hazmat loads.  These are important factors that the current generation needs to know.  

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Posted by Harrison on Thursday, July 29, 2021 8:19 AM

We have a bridge on the D&H down in Glenville, just north of Mohawk Yard. One bridge carries NS and CP local trains, while another is owned by Pan Am (part of the "magic triangle). Trucks coming off the highway see a low clearance sign, but they clear under the Pan Am bridge no problem. Then they ignore the even lower clearance signs, and hit the NS/CP bridge, which is, I believe, either 10 foot 8 or 11 feet. It's become a bit of a "hot button topic" among local railfans... 

Harrison

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 29, 2021 7:53 AM

tree68
 
blue streak 1

Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ? 

I think a tell-tale (also a RR item) would be appropriate - and I'd use dowels, not rope, so they made lot of noise if you hit them.  And it would be easy to replace them if someone hit them hard enough to break them.  If wood proved too fragile, then hard plastic.

But you still can't fix stupid.  Stupidity can overcome ALL EFFORTS to prevent it.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, July 29, 2021 7:53 AM

tree68
 
blue streak 1

Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ? 

I think a tell-tale (also a RR item) would be appropriate - and I'd use dowels, not rope, so they made lot of noise if you hit them.  And it would be easy to replace them if someone hit them hard enough to break them.  If wood proved too fragile, then hard plastic. 

At the continental divide on I-70 here in Colorado (Johnson & Eisenhower tunnels) the electric eye tell-tales have been in place for decades. Still does not stop Joe-Bob Trucker from getting into trouble. They also have staff in gatehouses in the approaches and in the east portal that control lane lights and video cameras everywhere. Still does not stop the problems.

The theory of the conservation of evil has a side corallary, the conservation of stupid. And they just keep coming, reinforced now with the flawed GIS in their GPS gear.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 7:02 AM

blue streak 1

Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ?

I think a tell-tale (also a RR item) would be appropriate - and I'd use dowels, not rope, so they made lot of noise if you hit them.  And it would be easy to replace them if someone hit them hard enough to break them.  If wood proved too fragile, then hard plastic.

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, July 29, 2021 6:53 AM

blue streak 1
Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ?

Did you note in the video the white truck that came on the street facing the camera, turned left away from the bridge and subsequently returned to have its top sheared?

Sometimes you can't fix stupid.

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Thursday, July 29, 2021 2:40 AM

Wonder if a RR type high detector could be placed at least 200 feet from traffic light ?  It would trigger the traffic light to go to imediate red and also activate some kind of warning sign. ?  Install all three directions.   Also what about other direction beyond RR bridge ?

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Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 11:17 PM

It doesn't matter how high the bridge is, someone will always find a way to get stuck under it.  

Yesterday a semi carrying a oversized piece of construction equipment (I think it was a packer) got stuck underneath the east end of Walker Yard in Edmonton, on 97 St.  I've never heard of anyone getting stuck there before, and this part of 97 St is actually designated as a truck route.  

https://mobile.twitter.com/LauraKrauseNews/status/1420210981712498689

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 10:27 PM

BaltACD
Similar bridges don't get the notoriety as they don't have someone that has dedicated the resources to publish a video record of the failures.

True that.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 10:25 PM

tree68
The CSX bridge over the Onondaga Lake Parkway in Liverpool, NY (N 43 5' 25" W 76 11' 37") gets visits on a regular basis.  One, unfortunately, was a double decker bus, with tragic results.  

Similar bridges don't get the notoriety as they don't have someone that has dedicated the resources to publish a video record of the failures.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 10:22 PM

The CSX bridge over the Onondaga Lake Parkway in Liverpool, NY (N 43 5' 25" W 76 11' 37") gets visits on a regular basis.  One, unfortunately, was a double decker bus, with tragic results.  

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 9:46 PM

You can't make this up. Stupid goes on.

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Posted by Enzoamps on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 9:14 PM

Great!!

I recall a photo of such a place once, and the truck body was all crunched on top.  The name of the trucking company printd on the rear:  RUMPF.  Made its own sound effect.

Hey:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/70251312@N00/17876611723

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11 foot 8 still killing it at 12 foot 4
Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 8:59 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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