Simple question - how common are high speed (40+ mph), three main track (or more) grade crossings?Out here west they aren't too common. One nearby that comes to mind is Lakeland Road in Santa Fe Springs on the LOSSAN corridor (BNSF San Bernardino sub portion). Out further east on the SB sub in downtown Colton there are three. There are a couple on the the Cajon sub but they're way out of town / sight / mind. Most but not all are slated for grade separation or closure.
Honorable mention only goes to at least one in San Diego (Old Town) - one freight/passenger, two LRT tracks.
Show us your major ones .....
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The BNSF main between Chicago and Aurora has dozens of grade crossings that fit this definition. Off the top of my head, there are six from Ridgeland Avenue to Harlem Avenue (two miles) in Berwyn.
UP West, like BNSF, has many that fit. Speed limit between Elmhurst and Elburn is 70/50, with some speed reduction to 50/50 for curves around Glen Ellyn and Wheaton.
Elmhurst: 7
Villa Park: 3, plus pedestrian crossing at station.
Lombard: 3, plus pedestrian crossing at station (to be replaced with tunnel).
Glen Ellyn: 3
Wheaton: 8 (one to be eliminated and replaced with pedestrian tunnel).
Winfield: 1
West Chicago: 1 (the two near the downtown don't count, because speed at the CN diamond is down to 35).
(From West Chicago through Geneva the line is still two tracks...for now.)
LaFox: 2, maybe more.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Go to Google Earth and follow the U.P. mainline from Clinton, Iowa to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The mainline is rated at at least 79 MPH, I think, through most of it.
There are MANY grade crossings. I started counting them and gave up as too boring.
Most U.S. highways have an overpass, and a few state routes have overpasses, but most crossings are at grade.
Most are probably in towns (from 1 to 5 crossings per "town"). There are probably close to an equal number of concrete, asphalt, and gravel county roads that cross at grade.
Larger cities do have many over or underpasses, but still have many city streets that cross at grade.
Then there are probably hundreds of "farm crossings" (private crossings for farmers to get between farm fields that are split by the RR), plus private driveways over the ROW
Over/Underpasses are the rarity around here. There is some semblance of planning in the state of having a county road every 1 mile (not well adhered to) and I would "guess" probably 1/4 of those cross the U.P. line at grade. So if Iowa is about 290 miles east to west, that would make 70 county roads, plus maybe 2 per town at maybe 45 towns would be a total of about 160 grade crossings.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Hi, Mike … You asked for it …
Some K.P. Photos
Part I (of I-IV)
BNSF: Four to three at Daggett, CA at the long BNSF/UP junction CP: View looks west (technically three and one).
From here on your qualifier “high speed” makes some photos questionable, but the location of many do have some trains 50 M.P.H. Since BNSF has so many “high speed crossover” timetable listed at 50 M.P.H., I will take the liberty of posting the following ...
BNSF: Old, ex-public now railroad grade crossing at Summit in Cajon Pass
BNSF/UP: Near Cajon Pass, closed Devore Rd. UP one main, BNSF 3 mains …
BNSF: Railroad Verdemont, 3MT, at Palm Ave., San Bernardino
Continued in Part II
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Part II (of I-IV)
Colton is 30 M.P.H. territory, so these first ones may not qualify. But, as a kid in the 1960’s, I saw a few radical engineers do 50 through here, and none of the rest of the five man crews said a word!
BNSF: Laurel Ave. in Colton. Three (background) to four mains, view looks westbound.
BNSF: Same, but from Olive St. looking eastbound
BNSF: E St. in Colton, looking westbound.
There are several multi-track grade crossings in Riverside.
BNSF/UP: Two and a half at junction, West Riverside.
Continued in Part III
Part III (of I-IV)
Is this a high speed area? Hardly!
The great four-track grade crossing area on the west side of Cheyenne, WY
Continued in Part IV
Part IV (of I-IV)
This is definitely high speed territory!
UP: Nebraska, triple-track line. Eastbound view from grade crossing …
Kearney, NE: UP triple-track line, all views looking eastbound.
Nebraska sees a lot of triple-track high speed running, at least on the UP, and there are plenty of grade crossings too! Great place to visit!
Well, Mike, I hope this helps your interesting post effort. Not a whole lot of forum users post photos. These photos may or nor may not inspire others.
Best wishes,
K.P.
Semper Vaporo Go to Google Earth and follow the U.P. mainline from Clinton, Iowa to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The mainline is rated at at least 79 MPH, I think, through most of it. There are MANY grade crossings. I started counting them and gave up as too boring.
Not too many of those Iowa crossings have three tracks, though, which is what the o.p. was asking about. Maybe someday...
The speed limits, last I checked, were 70/70 through most of this territory.
Thanks, K.P., for shots of the real raceway, out there in Nebraska!
CShaveRR Semper Vaporo Go to Google Earth and follow the U.P. mainline from Clinton, Iowa to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The mainline is rated at at least 79 MPH, I think, through most of it. There are MANY grade crossings. I started counting them and gave up as too boring. Not too many of those Iowa crossings have three tracks, though, which is what the o.p. was asking about. Maybe someday... The speed limits, last I checked, were 70/70 through most of this territory. Thanks, K.P., for shots of the real raceway, out there in Nebraska!
Oops... sorry, I totally missed the qualification for 3 tracks. I don't know of any grade crossings with 3 "MAIN LINE" tracks. I know of several 3 and 4 track crossings, but the extra tracks are all spurs, sidings and yard leads, definitely NOT mainline speeds.
Thanks for all the responses so far. We don't get many SFBA folks posting who can confirm that the Mission Bay Drive crossing of Caltrain in downtown SF ( 37.769589,-122.398529 ) is above the 40 MPH cutoff.
Los Angeles has the opposite problem of Chicago - allegedly the CPUC won't authorize new 3MT+ grade crossings for "safety" reasons. Guess our drivers and peds aren't smart enough to cope ....
Ah--you didn't tell us that this is for a new grade crossing! Getting a railroad to agree to a new grade crossing anywhere is a challenge, let alone trying to build one on three tracks. Railroads these days are all about eliminating grade crossings (whether with grade separations or just plain closing them), and safety, though it's the main reason, is just one reason.
Actually, several projects on the LOSSAN corridor and BNSF SB sub have this dilemma.
Between CP Serapis (Pico Rivera) and CP Valley View (La Mirada) there are two active projects to upgrade 2MT to 3MT. Everyone wants total grade separation but state and local gov'ts barely have enough $$ to fund one sep at a time. I have no idea how this will unfold.
Likewise, east of Fullerton Jct four grade separations and a new Metrolink station will probably result in a 2MT to 3MT upgrade, but the exact timing of everything is unclear. Not all streets will be grade separated initially.
From a safety standpoint, I can't see a big difference between two and three tracks. Opposing movements will fool the drivers and peds, overtakes probably not.
Would you consider the UP 3-track main that begins at the Powder River Basin to qualify as high speed? That stretches for many miles to the point where one track finally turns off to the south (the location name eludes me at the moment). I have a video about that line and I'd say several of the trains in it were moving along at a good clip, although I can't vouch for the actual speed. But I'd speculate many were hitting the freight maximum.
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