Exempt?

[bbrant]

I have a question regarding a railroad crossing sign on a line in my area. The line itself is not abandoned but it hasn't seen any traffic in years. At one of the railroad crossings, there's a standard crossbuck with an "Exempt" sign below it. What does this exempt sign mean? Does it have anything to do with the lack of traffic on the line?

Here's a photo of what I'm referring to.

Brian

[Overmod]

Extensive discussion of this very subject on a previous thread.

Title of thread, oddly enough, is "exempt crossing" and its starting date is something like October 23rd, 2004.

Wide variety of interesting insights, I thought.

[Mookie]

Gonna poke a paw in here - no trains use this track....?

Mook

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod

Extensive discussion of this very subject on a previous thread.

Aw Overmod! Have a cup of coffee and untie your shoelaces.

You never know - this may be a little old lady that doesn't have a good memory and needs to have things reviewed once in awhile. Not all of us have the time or the ability to research. So be patient with us.

Mookie

[Anonymous]

I've seen this in NW Indiana. It seems to be a crossing where there is such little traffic that tank trucks and school buses don't have to make the required stop. This is merely my guess at the situation. There's a crossing in Portage where they ripped up the tracks but instead of removing the crossbucks they tacked an "EXEMPT" sign up.
Mitch

[Anonymous]

try this:
http://www.schoolbusing.org/pdf/railroadx.pdf#search='railroad%20exempt'

basically means busses don't have to stop at that railroad track for the normal "stop open door, look" method.

This goes into more detail: http://www.nwsa.com/Secure/safetytopic0400.pdf#search='railroad%20exempt%20sign'

Listing the DOT rules as being:

QUOTE: Commercial Motor Vehicles required to be placarded and all cargo tanks (full or empty) must
stop within 15-50 feet of railroad crossings until it is safe to proceed. Tracks must be crossed in
a single gear (no shifting allowed).
Exceptions to these requirements are:
! tracks used exclusively for industrial switching purposes, within a business district;
! crossing when a police officer or crossing flagman directs traffic to proceed;
! crossing controlled by a functioning highway traffic signal;
! abandoned railroad crossing which is marked with a sign indicating that the rail line is
abandoned;
! industrial or spur line crossing marked with a sign reading “EXEMPT.”

[edbenton]

The exempt sign also means if a train comes down the tracks it is required to stop and look before croosing the street if the tracks are still there[(-D][(-D][(-D][swg]

[Modelcar]

...Believe that DOT rules statement ties it up.

[fievel]

That was a good question, BBRANT. Thanks to the interesting links from
SteamerFan, I learned something! [:)]

[richardy]

Here is the link to the Exempt Crossing thread that Overmod mentioned if you want more reading on the subject.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=23329

[DSchmitt]

It is a grade crossing with a low volumn of low speed trains. The criteria for the desnigation and rules that apply to rail traffic and to road traffic varies between the states.

[Anonymous]

SteamerFan hits it dead on out of that green bible. Chapter and Verse too. Yeehaww.

I love the part about police directing traffic. If that Bear says you "go" you "go" regardless of what the rest of the signals may say.

Bye bye.. see you on the other side of that crossing.