Sec. 20-19. Flagmen or signals required at railro

[Anonymous]

Sec. 20-19. Flagmen or signals required at railroad crossings.




All companies operating railroad lines within the city are hereby required to observe the following provisions at the crossings of such lines with streets or highway in the city:





Whenever any locomotive or car approaches a crossing on any line of track, it shall be brought to a standstill until a flagman or other employee advances to the center of the crossing and signals to the engineer, motorman or other person in charge of the locomotive or car whether it is safe to advance across the crossing. In lieu of this, the company may maintain at crossings a permanent flagman, during all hours of the day and night, whose duty it shall be to signal all locomotives and cars and all passersby whether it is safe to advance across the crossing; provided, however, this section shall not affect or have application to railroad companies maintaining approved automatic electric warning stop signals or automatic electric stop gates at crossings.





(Code 1956, § 20-2)


Trying to find out about the Lake Charles deal about horn blowing and came across this. Does anybody do this in Lake Charles at non-electric crossings?
Mike

[edblysard]

Are you quoating the GCOR or a city ordinance? The current GCOR has only 17 sections. If it is a city ordinance, which city?. The current GCOR section pertaining to crossings is chapter 6, sections 6.32. part A, titled: Movement when Automatic Warning devices are malunfunctioning:, which reads, in part, "stop before occupying the crossing. After a crew member is on the ground at the crossing to warn highway traffic, proceed over the crossing on hand signals from that crew member, or, If devices are seen to be working or when relieved by the train dispatcher, proceed over the crossing at 15mph without stopping until the head end of the train completely occupies the crossing, then proceed at normal speed".
Section B: When notified that automatic warning devices are malfunctioning, sound signal (see 5.8.2) regardless of any prohibition. I would bet that all the major crossing in Lake Charles have gates, and the requirement to blow the horn at crossings is a federal law, which can not be superseded by and local, city, county or state law. So they blow the horn anyway, regardless of the ordinance. At the port, we are required to flag thru any crossing where the device isnt working, and all crossings, public or private, where there is not a device present.
Ed