QUESTION FOR A PROFESSIONAL RAILROADER

[Anonymous]

to add to Mr toronto's EXCELLENT response i'm jsut going to add this

The train is most likely going a He1l of alot faster then you think it is.

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, LIVE
Kev.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeremy

I would just like to ask you what your reasons are for your question. Reason being that reacently this forum has been nothing less than inandated(sp?) by a few people that are absonlutly obbssesed by the topic of rail crossing in a negative attempt to persicute the rail roads for being irresponsible.... so I would not want to automatically group you into that bunch if you were simply asking an innocent question, and are now boggled by both the negative and political responses you are getting....

However, if you are upset at something which happend in your life, or indeed to the life of someone that you love, and you are seeking to find vindication - I will then ask you this: Why is important for you to know the speeds in which a train is permitted to travel along a counrty rail line and then a crossing? May I elaborate to clarify why I am throughing back to you your question, (if indeed this was your intent). If a car can travel 60 miles an hour on a highway/freeway, would you ever question why a motorist was travelling on that freeway at 60mph? If you or someone you love was injured or worse because you/they disregarded that a freeway has trucks that travel at that same speed on that same freeway still abide by that same speed limit, do you have reason to blame the truck that hit you/them?

Question - when you did drivers education, before you received your drivers licence, did they not tell you to slow down and look both ways before crossing railroad tracks? Even when there are gates I was always taught to slow down and look. I travelled two hours a day by school bus as a child to get to my school and there were always tracks we had to cross; our drivers HAD to stop (non-negotiable, LAW) at EVERY crossing OPEN the door and look both ways before crossing. Not really a bad percaution, if you really stop to think about it.

But your argument might not question the logic of slowing down or even stoping....you might be asking so that you can in future better anticipate when a train might be travlling at a meandering pace that will delay you a half hour waiting for it to CRAWL by, and when you can safely determin for yourself, "Hey, I know that train looks slow, but it's going to be on top of me in a half a second!"

Interesting, however, I would never try and give you an answer for that. Always expect that IF you see a train STOP! OH MY GOD, STOP!!! Never think that you know better. NEVER EVER think that you can beat the train. And For Mercy's sake, if the gates are down on a crossing, don't go around them!
(and mike and missouri, and the rest of you, if you felt like commenting on any of this, and saying that people don't or that it is more rare that accidents at crossings happen when people drive around gates, I have this to say: I work in a busy corridor between Windsor and Quebec city. MOST of the crossings along there are gated. I have been iinvolved in 3 crossing accidents in the 6 years, and they were all because some *&^$£!!!! thought he could drive around the gate and beat the train.)

The above all being a good reason why you can't generalize the speed of the train. A freight train carring 12 cars empty cars will travel faster than a freight train carring 200 cars filled with automobils, petrol, lumber ect... as a passenger train on an express route will travel faster than two of them combined. They will never be given permission to travel faster than is safe. However if you are sitting at a crossing trying to decide and determine which of the kinds of trains are coming and how fast in the split seconds it should take...HOLY! How good is your mathimatical physics that you can figure when it's safe or not? If you can see the train - it's not safe. Sit back and count the cars, cause you're not going anywhere!!

If jeremy, yours was truly an innocent question, I appologize, but bad timing, ask again in about a year, okay?

[JoeKoh]

Hi Jeremy
I just take train pictures but I can tell you that here I have seen signs for trains that say 60 and for crossovers that say 40.Not all raillines are the same and some could have restrictions for maintenence or some could not.The point is that if someone decides to race a train to a crossing and you tie YOU LOSE!
I hope this helps somewhat but please LOOK LISTEN LIVE.
stay safe
joe

[mudchicken]

Jeremy:

Please talk to the State DOT or Public Utilities RR Engineer in your local state.

Papula is again clueless and is still trying to hijack the forum to make it fit his warped view of the world. (If we followed his logic, we'd all still be living in caves)....Each state carries a different approach to how crossings are regulated. Each state interact with railroads (public or private) using that state's cdified regulations. Speed is a function of many variables, not just the 49CFR213 FRA regulations. The FRA is actively trying to reduce the motorist "idiot factor" by trying to close needless crossings. The locals often fight this even though local & state government will not (or can't afford to) upgrade a crossing where the motorist traffic increases while train traffic decreases.(But we can spend tons of ISTEA-TEA21-SAFE-TEA money on bike and hiking trails that are rarely used along with "beautification"?)I have seen many times where railroads trying to be good neighbors comply with local wishes (whistle bans and speed restrictions) only to see the locals find new idiotic ways to test Darwin's laws of natural pre-selection and create longer wait times.... You are not likely going to get your desired candid answer on this forum until the warped little one-sided minds find someplace else to roost.

[Anonymous]

I must clarify up front that I'm not an expert, however there is some issues with the actual speed and the percieved speed of the train. Because of the size, a train appears to be going slower than it actually is. This sets up a very dangerous situation at a passive crossing which constitutes a majority of the crossings in this country. I think the "speed limit" is set up by the FRA based on the class of track. I'm not positive. I do know that local communities can establish a speed limit for there area but the railroad is not obligated to follow it. This is another issue that is sad because who knows best about the local conditions, local legislatures or the FRA. Once again we dive into the Federal protection through Preemption that is given to the railroad. This needs to be changed, local and state need to be able to "fine tune" the federal standards to meet the local conditions and be able to fine the railroad for failure of compliance. I hope this helps, have a good day.
Mike Papula

[JeremyB]

Hi There

I Have a question that I hope somebody can answer? What is a approx. speed for a freight train running through a countryside? and what is the speed of a freight going through a grade crossing?can anybody answer this for me.again im not looking for an exact speed,just and approx.
Thanks for any info anybody can lend me.
Jeremy.