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[sward84]

Ok guys, I got a question, and I wanna see who knows this. I was out on my walk this morning, and I was getting ready to walk across the Hermitage Road crossing in Richmond, VA when a CSX freight was creeping up to the crossing. The gates were already down when the train came to a complete stop about 5 feet from the crossing. I assume it was the conductor stepped out of the engine and lit 2 flares, and put them in the middle of each side of the road. He then went back in the engine and the train went along it's way. Does anybody know why the flares were used? The horn was working fine because I heard it when it was making another crossing about 1/4 mile away.

Ok, now here is the idiot part. I just had to put this on here because it is so darn stupid. After the train cleared and the gates were raised and the cars were crossing the tracks, some older guy stopped in the middle of the tracks, got out of his truck with a jug of water, and drenched the flares like they were a major fire hazzard. Not only was he blocking traffic, the gates were coming back down for another train coming the other direction at about 20-25mph. He saw the train and motioned it to stop, like the train can stop on a dime like a car. Once he realized that the train was not going to stop, he sprinted to his truck and drove away about 5 seconds before the train entered the crossing.

Maybe I should go walking more often [:p]

[coborn35]

Did he maybe think the flares were for the NEXT traint too????????? What an idiot.

[TrainFreak409]

Some people just don't understand that trains are too heavy to stop ina short distance. Or maybe he thought that he had the right-of-way, after all, he was a pedestrian once out of his car.

~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~

[espeefoamer]

To borrow a line from Jeff Foxworthy, Here's your sign![:o)]

[BR60103]

On unsignalled lines, flares are used as timing devices. If a flare burns 20 minutes, a following train will know that there is a train less than 20 minutes ahead of them. This is important if the first train is running slowly or will be stopping just down the line.
Have you seen the truck driver taking a hammer to red traffic lights?

[mikeyuhas]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sward84

Ok, now here is the idiot part. I just had to put this on here because it is so darn stupid. After the train cleared and the gates were raised and the cars were crossing the tracks, some older guy stopped in the middle of the tracks, got out of his truck with a jug of water, and drenched the flares like they were a major fire hazzard.

Heh heh. I don't know many people who carry around jugs of water in their trucks. The guy could have busted Hoover Dam on the fusee (I think they call them fusees on the railroad, not flares) and it wouldn't have gone out. I once put a handful of lit fusees in a garbage can full of water and they burned to the end. At night, they cast an eerie red glow and spewed all kinds of wicked bubbles and smoke, like a witch's brew of some sort.

This was when we still had galvanized metal trash cans [:)]

[sward84]

To borrow a line from Jeff Foxworthy, Here's your sign!

Wrong person. That is Bill Engvall

[squeeze]

This is the first time I have heard of flares used. I thought they died out with CTC and modern communication equipment. If this is so, then are torpedoes still in use? The last time I saw a flare / fusee was when the Budd cars were running between Versailles and Pittsburgh.

[Anonymous]

We have CSX, which is conservative (or "unrepentant" depending on your stance) regarding railroad practice. AND an unscheduled line. But a technology isn't necessarily ***able just because it is old.

BR from Brampton's explanation has got to be the right one, but is it also possible that that particular jurisdiction or crossing forbade the use of a horn? Many municipalities do, and the horn you heard later--could it have been "out in the county" or something?

[AltonFan]

To me it sounds like the train crew was doing some switching, and the flares were placed to warn drivers that even if the gates were up, a train might be coming, fast.

I could see the possbility that the gates wouldn't actuate if the train was on a siding or spur instead of the main line.

I've seen Metra commuter train conductors drop fusees off the rear of commuter trains.

I've also watched a UP local crew switch a cement plant at night. The cement plant is next to a busy street, and IIRC, there are lights, but no gates on the grade crossing. The train crew put fusees on the median strip of the road to warn motorists.

And all this has happened in the last three years.

[Anonymous]

This was a crossing that for some reason had to be "flagged"over. The fusees were a warning to vehicular traffic and not intended for any following train.