Railroad grade crossings & Stupid Drivers!

[Junctionfan]

My club members told me of an incident that involved a CN train versus a truck carring steel beams. Ever watch Braveheart. Remember at Stirling how Wallace stopped the attack of the English heavy cavalry? Needless to say the locomotives were ripped a new one and it was the truck driver's fault.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by trainjunky29

...What we need to do is get a steam locomotive, and run it buy all the crossings at 10 miles per hour, with cylinder and blowdown cocks open, a massive plume of black smoke rising, and the whistle and bell going, to show people in their SUV's and Hummers that they aren't nearly the biggest thing on the road...

Sounds like a job for the UP Big Boy!

[Overmod]

Hey trainman1221, don't you mean "Haworth"?

You wouldn't happen to remember which street this was, would you?

[Anonymous]

While running trains on the South Shore, down the street in Michigan City I had more than once: Get on the rails and drive right towards me, then swerve to their left into on-coming traffic. And, race along side of me, pass me, get on the rails and signal for a left hand turn and stop. I know. It's the railroads' fault.
Mitch

[88gta350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by KCRRMAN

QUOTE: Originally posted by 88gta350

At work our main entrance is about 5 feet lower than the rail line and there's a good hill to get up to the grade crossing, then it levels out once you cross.

We occasionally get low-boy trailers coming on site for heavier loads and they some times get their trailers high-centered on this hill if they don't take the turn wide enough. I was stationed at the entrance one time when this happened and went about getting the truck unstuck, which is not easy because they have to back out onto a rather busy road and reapproach from a wider angle. We finally got him across the tracks when not 3-5 minutes later a train came. It could have been bad.

First, I would immediately get with the local road authority and explain this serious situation. Sounds like the crossing approaches could use some reconfigurations. Second, make certain that you have the applicable 800 number to contact the railroad should a truck become high centered. Third, I would contact your local Operation Lifesaver coordinator and try to arrange presentations for truckers at your facilities and at a minimum share information with them about crossing safety.

There's a couple of problems with those fixes. First, we do have the 800 number for NS, and have used it often for stuck vehicles or malfunctioning gates. As for redesinging the crossing approach, it's technically running through private property (the company's), and the line parrelells the public roadway so closely that it would nearly impossible to do any type of reconstruction on this particular crossing... it's just in a bad spot. As for having presentations with the truckers, these aren't company truckers, or they would have had safety standdowns long ago. They are always contractors or deliveries. They are not a very common occurance and the company has no way of knowing or deciding who will be driving the truck. If your a CDL certified trucker, you should just know not to center yourself on the tracks!

[Sterling1]

I remember an incident just this summer, in fact it was in July at Attridge road in North Chili, west of Rochester, NY. This fool in his black pickup truck first did a sort of rolling stop and then sped off through the crossing. At the time, the flashers were going and the gates were about to go down. Even though the train was just revving up it seemed to me that the driver should have stopped before the gates looked around and listened before reacting. Some people are so strange.!?

[trainfan1221]

Overmod,
Don't know the street name, but there was a florist nearby. You are right about it being Haworth.

[Anonymous]

I once read: There was a car with 4 high school students in it approaching a RR crossing that was activated. The lights were flashing, but, didn't have gates. The driver sped up and beat the train over the crossing. The driver then says "boy, that was lucky, that saved us at least 5 minutes!"

One student then replied "so, what are you going to do with those 5 minutes you saved?"

Trains vs. Cars, the cars usually lose.