As a former truck driver, I can tell you you're blinding the hell out of the trucker. I used travel US 36 across MO and when I met a train at night, I'd flash my hi-beams and the engineer would dim their lights. This was before ditch lights so maybe something has changed to where you can't dim them now. I know you can turn off the ditch lights so maybe that would help.
When a trucker flashes his High beams, it means one of two things, Your lights are blinding them, or to move over, your in the clear.
I am a Truck driver, and trust me, its not out of ignorance
rrboomer wrote:The ever present event recorder on the locomotive makes it less likely the headlight/ditchlights will be dimmed now days, as it is a rule violation.
I understand the rule violation, but when you're blinding a Trucker hauling 80,000 lbs at 65 mph, that's not the best choice to make. Imagine if your family were about to meet that truck and the truck driver couldn't see them.
Is your family more likely to meet that truck and die, or not have money for food, becuase you lost your job? I dunno, I've seen trains coming before and the lights are bright. I can't blame engineers for not dimming, as it is a rule. This is one of those "do your job, even though everyone thinks your an idiot" than it is out of spite or something like that. As a firefighter, I see this every now and again too. I was at a car fire a while back, and a guy stopped and said our flashing red lights were too bright, and we should turn them off. The only answer you can give them is too bad, it isn't happening.
Just think of it as the payback for the awesome views of trains you get every now and again in places like this.
Generally I dont have trouble with the trains at night. I recall a few in the southwest that will usually switch off thier train lights when rounding a curve where it hits the interstate very bright. But only for a moment until the sweep clears the interstate.
Lights from a trucker means yer safe to come over or you are making too much light.
I wore rifle glasses at night that had a particular tint of color that really knocked down headlights quite a bit but kept the necessary "World" clear to see.
The only time I have trouble with light is at night in populated areas that contain many gas stations, convience stores etc... the light pollution flooding out from these facilities are amazing and unnecessary. That is one reason we are out in the county some distance from these places.
Here is one of the daytime videos in rain where the lights are pretty bright:
http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/4876/100carsupfinalff9.flv
If there are no dogs in heaven,then I want to go where they go.
Iam a trucker by trade out of Arizona.
Iam shure iam talking for a few exp drivers out there and alot of them are model railroaders like myself .there are alot of cry baby truckers out there any more. I fore one know the trains cant dim there lights its part of the safty.I cant even get another trucker to dim there lights on the road way even when there are no trains around.
FTGT725 wrote: rrboomer wrote:The ever present event recorder on the locomotive makes it less likely the headlight/ditchlights will be dimmed now days, as it is a rule violation. I understand the rule violation, but when you're blinding a Trucker hauling 80,000 lbs at 65 mph, that's not the best choice to make. Imagine if your family were about to meet that truck and the truck driver couldn't see them.
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
I have been a truck driver for almost 20 years (21 all the way back to my straight truck days) and I do know that some engineers can and will dim for you. If this is a rule violation I don't know when it was written, or started being enforced more effectively, but about 6-8 years ago I had a regular run up to Colville, WA north of Spokane every week. Heading south down 395 near Addy almost every week, a little after midnight I would meet a BN freight headed north and the tracks curve in such a way that the trains headlights would be blinding for highway traffic. So one week I high beamed him back and he dimmed his headlights until he rounded the curve to where he wasn't blinding highway traffic. After that he would dim every week, and I would give him a THANK YOU with the clearance light interrupter. It was uncanny how often we would both be at that same spot at the same time every week. Being a model railroader and railfan, I often wished there was some way that I could have met that engineer for coffee some time ( I would have been Happy to treat )
Now days leaving Portland and heading up the Columbia River Gorge at O-Dark thirty in the morning, I am often blinded at several places where the tracks are on a curve near the interstate, and will admit that I have been tempted to get a high candle power spot light just to return the favor. I DON'T for a heartbeat believe that it is a safety issue, with the stopping distances a train requires, how likely is it really that they are going to see something in time to stop anyway. reading about trains and grade crossings in particular, it seems that they almost never even try to stop before hitting a vehicle any way. How many situations are they going to see in time to do anything about? Maybe they need a three level headlight system, Full bright in remote areas, a non blinding intensity level for when around non-railroad personnel and the dim they use when waiting for an oncoming train. Seems that this wouldn't be an excessive solution for an improvement in public safety.
Doug
challenger3980 wrote: After that he would dim every week, and I would give him a THANK YOU with the clearance light interrupter.
After that he would dim every week, and I would give him a THANK YOU with the clearance light interrupter.
at least theres somebody out there who still uses their marker light interrupter, most of the drivers dont anymore......
Actually I use my interrupter all the time, I even have a "signature blink" 2 long blinks 3 short and another long. I will admit that the decline of common courtesy has happened in the driving community as much as it has happened in society in general. Also, believe it or not, the interrupter switch is an added option, that must be spec'd when the tractor is ordered, and all too often the people spec'ing out the trucks, are believe it or not, you guessed it, NOT the people who will be driving them. so there are things the driver would like to have that the head office number crunchers don't think are worth that one time $25.00 expense for a vehicle that they will have for 5 years/500,000 miles or sometimes more. The last company that I worked for were surprised when their new tractors showed up without trailer brake hand valves, again you guessed it, not standard equipment (but should be) but must be spec'd when ordering the tractor.
Do You know what COMMON SENSE and COMMON COURTESY have in common?
NEITHER one are COMMON ANYMORE.
TRX450R racer wrote: challenger3980 wrote: After that he would dim every week, and I would give him a THANK YOU with the clearance light interrupter. at least theres somebody out there who still uses their marker light interrupter, most of the drivers dont anymore......
Then I see things not really improving. Either that or fleets not allowing that switch to be in the cab.
I would use mine without thinking. Sometimes I do it automatically and wonder.. hmm did I thank the fella back there?
Once in a while I do so on my four wheeler and things really settle down to convoy once I set the cruise to the truck's govenor in front. Traffic sure is smooth without the drama of near misses, makeup, phones, me first etc.
Namerifrats wrote:Same thing happens to us alot (NS Conductor) on my territory. People are being ignorant and thinking that the train is like another car on the road and we should dim our lights everytime we meet a car. Just like these people that buy a house where their driveway is in the middle of a siding and raise hell when the train stops there for 20 minutes on a meet. I just say nicely, well now you know why you got such a deal on that property. And the same people that get made and complain everytime a train blows a crossing and they bought the house that was built last year beside the crossing thats been there 50 years.
This has NOTHING to do with ignorance, and it is NOT AT ALL THE SAME as someone buying a house where the driveway crosses tracks. This is about SAFETY which is a subject that railroads hound their own employees about (I am NOT saying that railroads shouldn't be safety conscious) those @#%*&% headlights are blinding in some situations, and it is a SAFETY issue in those cases for highway traffic.
The only time someone's house having a driveway crossing tracks would life threatening is either crossing the tracks to access or leave the property, or if there is an emergency requiring fire, ambulance or police response. Or also in the case of a serious derailment. Drivers being blinded by a bright headlight while driving at night, can be a very dangerous situation.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
I know some of our engineers will dim their headlights for on coming trucks, but not for other traffic. We have a number of ex-truck drivers, perhaps those are the ones that do it.
I do not.
Some ditch light switches on older power are seperate from the headlight switch. On newer engines, some have a bright without ditch lights and a bright with ditch lights position. Some only have a bright with ditch light position. This is in addition to the off, dim, and on some a medium position for the switch.
Maybe that will be the next thing. No bright headlight zones.
Jeff
hrbdizzle wrote:+1^^^^^^And for the comment about us not even trying to stop before we have a collision.
As a driver for the last 9years I have never had a train blind me so bad I had to dim or blink my lights at them. There are some things in life that you ahve to accept and go on with that.
And for blinking my trailer lights i do that about 90% of the time. And yes its about courtesy and to many are thinking of the next mile or paycheck that they forget about it.
Dean
challenger3980, it would appear that you know nothing about trains, or the railroad. This conclusion comes from your comments. Your remark about trains not even trying to stop before hitting something and our stopping distances proves you have no idea what you're talking about. There is a big different in 18 wheels weighing around 40 tons total, truck, trailer, load, etc. And a loaded coal train, approx 848 wheels (figured by four 6 axle engines, and 100 coal hoppers) weighing 13,000 tons. Each one of your tires contacts the pavement roughy the same size as a basketball. Each of our wheels only has contact with the rail about the size of a dime. That's quite a bit less contact of wheel on surface to assist with stopping than you have. By the time we see something and try to stop, guess what, it just isn't going to happen. Like mentioned by another member, why run the risk each and everytime of going into emergency and causing a massive multi million dollar derailment and possible killing alot of people, when you wouldn't have gotten stopped in the first place. There is a rule about our headlights that requires them to be on bright at all times except for a couple of exceptions when meeting another train when not approaching a crossing, or operating in the yard where other engines are working, etc. We dim the headlights for you, and we nail a trepasser with the lights off. That's our jobs on the line because even hough they were trespassing, their family will likely sue and usually the railroad is always found at fault by people completely ignorant about the railroad. We would not only lose our jobs, but likely face criminal charges as well. All railroad employee's know that we can't please everybody all the time and no matter what we do, we're going to **** somebody off. My advice on the headlights, maybe next time if you were not staring into the headlights they wouldn't be blinding you as much.
Namerifrats,
My comments about trains not even attempting to stop, are from reading the posts on here and other places, written by supposed working rails, that have claimed that they don't even bother to attempt to stop until after the collision.
I have no misconception about your stopping distances, unless you are claiming that You can stop shorter than I believe to be the case, which is one reason I question the value of that bright a light, are you really able in most cases to stop within the practical visible range of your lighting?
If there is no need to dim for the general public, then there shouldn't be a need to dim for other train crews should there? As far as staring into the headlights, I try to look as far to the side as I can, and still see the road. I frequently drive I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge, where UP's mainline roughly parallels the highway for over 100 miles, in many places track curvature causes the trains headlights to shine directly across the highway, where without looking away from the road there is no way to avoid looking into those @#*%#* bright headlights, maybe there is a need for legislation regarding bright headlight zones, because contrary to "Quiet Zones" this is about PUBLIC SAFETY not public annoyance. I am not asking for the headlights to be completely turned off, but rather dimmed, which having seen it done, I know is possible.
zugmann wrote:We have a form that is filled out when a train hits something. The one question asks what the headlight setting was. God help you if you hit something and your lights were on something other than bright.
zapp wrote: zugmann wrote:We have a form that is filled out when a train hits something. The one question asks what the headlight setting was. God help you if you hit something and your lights were on something other than bright. Th' hell with the rule enfraction, if we hit somebody with our headlights dimmed I'm going to jail!! No, I don't dim them unless I'm meeting another train!
If they are not so bright as to be a safety issue, why bother dimming for another train?
Namerifrat has it figured out, just don't stare at them.
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