For the life of me I can figure out why the Xing gates are not working for the commuter train and they work for the freight trains and the tourist train, Austin and Central Texas! Whats the difference ? Are they not activating fast enough to potect the Xings because of the speed the commuter trains are running? This seems to be a problem in the downtown Austin portion of the route only...
What kind of Xing gates did they replace ? I rode the train on July 18th and they worked properly although there were flagmen at some of the Xings but they were down and the lights flashing at all of them..We ran about 60 mph on the return trip to Howard sta. from Leander..Going to Leander was a different story,the signals were'nt working or they were testing them because we had to stop at nearly every one...We as Ambassadors were asked to come and ride for a simulation test and the cars (2) were packed and rode great !
I can only speculate, since I'm not familiar with this situation. Is it possible that the "commuter trains" are shorter or lighter than the other trains, or that they have disk brakes rather than tread brakes? If so, it's possible that they aren't always "shunting" the signal circuit. The other posibility is that the signals are erratic for all trains, but that you've noticed it only on the commuter trains. The use of flagmen until they figure out what's going on and fix it is an appropriate response under FRA grade crossing rules.
Hmm,
As a matter of fact the commuter train does have disk brakes,but Im sure they have asked Stadtler about this or even had them here looking at the problem,I hope they have at least..Yes the flagmen are FRA required and they are doing a FINE job...
Thanks
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