mudchicken wrote: CShaveRR wrote: I hope NS saw this video, and used it to collect damages from the truck driver or his company. There's no doubt that the truck went past lowered gates (four-quadrant gates, from the looks of things) to be on the crossing at the wrong time.What excuse could the driver possibly come up with?I see a second issue that nobody caught. Trucker can share the blame with the public road agency unless the local highway maintenance knuckleheads posted a sign out of frame.Look carefully at :(1) the length of the truck and the position of the rear wheels.(2) look at the relative positions of the front and rear of the tractor trailer. Going to ask permission to use this in one of the next classes I teach to surveyors and civil engineers. (the trucker had a bigger issue before the gates even came down)Wish there was a little more shown at the beginning. (and wish I could find the video of the same railroad trying to run a stack train under a street overpass)
CShaveRR wrote: I hope NS saw this video, and used it to collect damages from the truck driver or his company. There's no doubt that the truck went past lowered gates (four-quadrant gates, from the looks of things) to be on the crossing at the wrong time.What excuse could the driver possibly come up with?
I hope NS saw this video, and used it to collect damages from the truck driver or his company. There's no doubt that the truck went past lowered gates (four-quadrant gates, from the looks of things) to be on the crossing at the wrong time.
What excuse could the driver possibly come up with?
I see a second issue that nobody caught. Trucker can share the blame with the public road agency unless the local highway maintenance knuckleheads posted a sign out of frame.
Look carefully at :
(1) the length of the truck and the position of the rear wheels.
(2) look at the relative positions of the front and rear of the tractor trailer. Going to ask permission to use this in one of the next classes I teach to surveyors and civil engineers. (the trucker had a bigger issue before the gates even came down)
Wish there was a little more shown at the beginning. (and wish I could find the video of the same railroad trying to run a stack train under a street overpass)
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD wrote: mudchicken wrote: CShaveRR wrote: I hope NS saw this video, and used it to collect damages from the truck driver or his company. There's no doubt that the truck went past lowered gates (four-quadrant gates, from the looks of things) to be on the crossing at the wrong time.What excuse could the driver possibly come up with?I see a second issue that nobody caught. Trucker can share the blame with the public road agency unless the local highway maintenance knuckleheads posted a sign out of frame.Look carefully at :(1) the length of the truck and the position of the rear wheels.(2) look at the relative positions of the front and rear of the tractor trailer. Going to ask permission to use this in one of the next classes I teach to surveyors and civil engineers. (the trucker had a bigger issue before the gates even came down)Wish there was a little more shown at the beginning. (and wish I could find the video of the same railroad trying to run a stack train under a street overpass)Having railroads and roads on parallel rights of way creates big problems when there is a crossroad....especially with trucks as they get longer and longer. With current equipment of a 53 foot trailer and the cab that hauls it you have a vehicle that has a combined lenth of approximately 70 feet.....if the parallel road is anything less than 100 feet from the railroad you have problems...right here in River City....This problem is compounded when the road is widened without consideration for the traffic from crossroads being stopped and blocking the railroad. Short sighted engineering of the worst kind.
Even at 100 Feet it's really bad. Amazing how few highway engineers (including those pesky "transportation engineers") even are aware of the AREMA/AASHTO (Green Book) joint suggested minimum standard...
oskar wrote: I am surprised there was no horn at the end before they hit the truck. I guess they knew what was coming. This isn't the first time a truck was smashed by a NS train in North Carolina. NS 7122 on 213 smacked a yarn truck in Kings Mountain in August. Kevin
I am surprised there was no horn at the end before they hit the truck. I guess they knew what was coming. This isn't the first time a truck was smashed by a NS train in North Carolina. NS 7122 on 213 smacked a yarn truck in Kings Mountain in August. Kevin
CShaveRR wrote:There's no doubt that the truck went past lowered gates (four-quadrant gates, from the looks of things)
Where do the Engineer and Conductor go when a crash is about to occur? You don't have seat belts or shoulder straps that I know of. Is there a crashworthy location in the cab to duck into? Sit on the floor with your back to the front wall?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo wrote: Where do the Engineer and Conductor go when a crash is about to occur? You don't have seat belts or shoulder straps that I know of. Is there a crashworthy location in the cab to duck into? Sit on the floor with your back to the front wall?
It depends on what you're about to hit, as well as what you're in when it happens.
If the impact is going to be with anything less that a big truck, you just stay in the seat and watch the show. If it's a big truck (dump truck or 18-wheeler), one might hit the floor. If it's a gas truck, it doesn't matter: you just watch your life pass in front of your eyes.
If you're in a modern locomotive with the crash posts in the nose area, then most impacts will not penetrate too far into the cab area. If you're in an older locomtoive (pre-SD50) that does NOT have crash posts and the carbody is simply welded to the frame (GP7&9, F7&E8, etc), then hitting a truck becomes a much more serious event. In the F7 & E8's, the best bet is to head for the engine room.
spokyone wrote: vsmith wrote: Its not just trucks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyH5KwFdhdY&feature=related I wish You Tube had a language filter for comments.
vsmith wrote: Its not just trucks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyH5KwFdhdY&feature=related
Its not just trucks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyH5KwFdhdY&feature=related
Yeah! There were only about 2 comments that didn't have swearing in them!
Did you see the one at the bottom "Was the train okay?"
If MY train was about to hit a fuel truck, I'd go into emergency and "join the birds" A.K.A. jumping out of the train!
I sat here trying to post about space issues around crossings as they were built. I decided to delete all of that and say this:
When a truck driver decides to put a wheel on the crossing past the white line and attempt to cross this crossing. It's showtime. Usually the crossing of the railroad is a success. If not? Well there is a Courthouse nearby where all of the little issues can be hammered out.
I had several incidents myself where there were crossings that presented problems and possibility of damage to the big truck... landing gear, 5thwheel/frame, drive tires vs bottom of flatbeds (48' freuhaufs really bad about this) and other issues that threaten a successful crossing. At that time it was sometimes easier to pass on that particular crossing and move to another one.
It aint the big public crossings that scare me no sir. It's the industrial plant trackage, port trackage and other places that have very big trains moving in extremely small areas. When you see signs like "No room for Man" on a corner.. you dont go there. Period. Ive gotten into more trouble trying to work around a F unit switching a cement plant in bad weather at 5 in the morning or getting surprised standing on buried tracks with rolling stock silent heading for you.
As far as I know I aint been dinged by a train but knock on wood Ive had some really bad surprises.
Then again Ive seen drivers ignore bright yellow large city-bus sized signage about a certain bridge and proceed to hit it anyway. There is always one somewhere who just has to try it.
I didnt notice; replayed the video and yep there he is. I think to myself.. what can this one man do? Wave a red flag for the train to stop?
It is still an impressive display of braking on that train.
TrainManTy wrote: spokyone wrote: vsmith wrote: Its not just trucks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyH5KwFdhdY&feature=related I wish You Tube had a language filter for comments.Yeah! There were only about 2 comments that didn't have swearing in them!Did you see the one at the bottom "Was the train okay?" If MY train was about to hit a fuel truck, I'd go into emergency and "join the birds" A.K.A. jumping out of the train!
Going into Emergency would be the last thing I would care to do. I'd rather take my chance of cutting threw it. You would need to be able to hold your breath because all the air would be sucked out of the cab instantly as the gas ignites. But back in 89 we had an engineer and conductor shoot the train and stop 30 feet after hitting the truck. They were right in the middle of the fire and burnt to death.
A tanker huh? You are going to find ME going away on a direct tangent upwind as fast as my legs or wheels will go.
We were in convoy once and number 6 was hauling rocket fuel and said so on the radio. Instantly there was a half mile open space on both ends of that tanker as our convoy split into two.
Back in the early 1990s, there was a collision somewhere south of Orlando, Florida between an Amtrak train and a power plant self contained generator unit that was being trucked into a power plant. This was a special move with an oversize and presumably very heavy load. Florida Dept. of Highways approved the entire move and its road routing. However, there was an overlooked problem with the last grade crossing going into the power plant. As I understood it, the double track was curved with super-elevation, and the lowboy trailer carrying the generator unit bottomed out on the rails and stuck so it could not be budged.
This was a classic case where one has to decide between expending valuable time extricating the stuck object, hoping to avoid any detection and/or embarrassment -or- spend that time preparing to flag down any possible trains. This generator move was a big deal, so they had lots of people in the convoy including at least one highway patrol car, which I would think would be well equipped to flag down a train. And more units are usually close at hand if needed. But instead, they chose to call the railroad on the phone. Apparently they were told they had 15-30 minutes, so they got busy with jacks and blocking under the trailer, thinking they might get loose without needing to stop the train.
Unfortunately, the train was less that 15 minutes away, and soon came barreling around the curve at full speed. The engineer later said he came around the curve and was confronted with a large, boxcar-size, green object centered across the track right in his path. Apparently there were two men in the cab, and they both ran back into the engine room. Seeing that a collision was imminent, the truck driver jumped back into the tractor (which was not on the track) and gave it all it had to try to yank the trailer out of the way.
But the trailer did not budge, and time had run out, so he made a hasty exit from the tractor cab. As he was doing so, the train hit the generator dead center, exploding it into a million pieces, upsetting both locomotives, and sending them skidding on their sides. Although the tractor was not directly hit, it whipsawed when the load was hit, and threw the truck driver a considerable distance. He did survive with injuries. The rest of the train stayed on the rails. One of the men in the engine room of the lead locomotive got burned pretty badly from getting tossed onto the exhaust manifold. There were no passenger fatalities, but many broken bones and noses.
I did not see this collision aftermath, nor have I read anything about it, but relatives in Florida told me all about it. One of them was a crane operator that worked on the cleanup. I am wondering if anybody here recalls hearing anything about it.
Ted M.
got trains?™
See my photos at: http://tedmarshall.rrpicturearchives.net/
We can't see what was happening as the truck got to the crossing or what was going on on the other side of the tracks. Something seems to have gotten in the way to slow the truck. The gate on the near side is rubbing the trailer and the gate on the far side is down on the trailer. Or the truck driver was talking on the phone and not paying attention to what he was doing. He may have been in a big hurry and thought he could make it in time.Too bad we don't know the rest of the story. We still need to "Stop , Look , and Listen". Simple safety saves alot of problems. Be safe.
It's my Milwaukee Road Petercar! Hiawatha still rides the west wind!
Almost forgot to say thanks. Thank you!
tatans wrote:Amazing how fast the train came to a stop, I would have thought it would take a mile or so.
It depends on the type of cars you have tanks cars have the worst brakes a tank train just keeps going and going, auto racks are next for being slow to stop, the best cars i have had for stopping are steel coil type cars and open top hoppers. wieght does make some differance but it also is the type of cars you have. there are way to many varibles to pinpoint how a train should stop and some trains pull better than others and could be the same type of train, 2 loaded 100 car coal trains will run different why i dont know some will roll better some stop better,
In regards to train vs. power plant... Did anybody ever think about REVERSE?!? If it came down going forward, then it might go back up in reverse.
In regards to train vs bear(?)... Instead of yelling at the animal how about the HORN!!
In regards to power plant vs. bear... I haven't seen the video yet.
CC
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