Trying to ticket and fine train crews.

[Anonymous]

To who ever this concerns.....We have posted list of crossings that we are to stay off of. If the crew does come down on that crossing to p/u or s/o, the county can ticket the "company". The crews know they have to keep their train out of town and bring their power into to town to pickup. Now there are situations if we have a train in emergency, that cannot be helped.

I use to run on an engine....There was this road that ran next to our tracks for 15 miles or so and we had a state police beside the track following us. He had his lights on pointing as us. So we stopped thinking somthing was wrong with our train. The funny thing is when we got down to talk to him he wanted to give us a ticket for going 10mph over the street posted speed limit which is 40mph. We laughed and went on our way.

[canazar]

If my memory serves me correctly, which it probbaly isnt, I believe here in Phoenix they can be tickted for blocking traffic after 15 minutes. I can think of quite a few spots where during the course of switching the trains can back out or block a crossing. I will see them work for about 10, then cut out, or just pull up and let the traffic flow for a few minutes, then back out again. Not sure if that was a state stautue, county or city.

[CNW 6000]

Know what would make a great COPS? Some officer trying to use the PIT maneuver on a C44-9W or maybe spike strips on an SD 70MAC! COME ON! The concept of an officer citing railcrews sure sounds like a waste of time, legal or not.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by erikthered

It depends on the locality. I belonged to a department that did not ordinarily write traffic citations, but their policy in an instance like this was to have our dispatcher call the 1-800 number on a crossing. She would then state that the crossing had been blocked in violation of Alabama statute and that the train needed to be moved, or it would be cited. We were not allowed to go track down the engineer or any of the trainmen. The citation, if written, would be mailed to the NS legal folks... who usually would not dispute the ticket. (It would have required a company employee to show up in traffic court to answer the charge.)

About a year ago, if memory serves me correctly, there was an incident involving a police officer and a UP train blocking a crossing. Apparently, the crew ended up dead on the law and had left the train. In any event, the officer contacted UP dispatch and continued to write citation after citation... and UP ended up paying something like $100,000 in fines. (It must have been a REALLY slow day for that particular officer!)

Erik

In Memphis, Tn, there used to be a running feud of sort between the City Cops and the Southern [later, NS] over issues around speed of trains, and blocked crossings coming out of the Yard. Literaqlly there were times when the police would race down parallel streets sirens blaring and stop the trains, to write tickets. It was a strange side show, but happened often enough that it was mentioned in the Commercial-Appeal Newspaper. I am not sure if it still goes on there as have been out of the area for some time.
Sam

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by erikthered

It depends on the locality. I belonged to a department that did not ordinarily write traffic citations, but their policy in an instance like this was to have our dispatcher call the 1-800 number on a crossing. She would then state that the crossing had been blocked in violation of Alabama statute and that the train needed to be moved, or it would be cited. We were not allowed to go track down the engineer or any of the trainmen. The citation, if written, would be mailed to the NS legal folks... who usually would not dispute the ticket. (It would have required a company employee to show up in traffic court to answer the charge.)

About a year ago, if memory serves me correctly, there was an incident involving a police officer and a UP train blocking a crossing. Apparently, the crew ended up dead on the law and had left the train. In any event, the officer contacted UP dispatch and continued to write citation after citation... and UP ended up paying something like $100,000 in fines. (It must have been a REALLY slow day for that particular officer!)

Erik

Sounds like that was one pissed-off cop.

[Anonymous]

But how can the crew be fined when it's the Railroads falt when something happends to the Train that isn't the crews falt. Such as Power failure? Broken nuckle? ETC. What if the Train goes into Emergency and the crew find the problem,and their still blocking a crossing? What if the Train is way under HP and it stalls on a hill blocking a crossing?
??????? I can't how the crew can take all the blame and just be fined for something that not under their control. Allan.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the locality. I belonged to a department that did not ordinarily write traffic citations, but their policy in an instance like this was to have our dispatcher call the 1-800 number on a crossing. She would then state that the crossing had been blocked in violation of Alabama statute and that the train needed to be moved, or it would be cited. We were not allowed to go track down the engineer or any of the trainmen. The citation, if written, would be mailed to the NS legal folks... who usually would not dispute the ticket. (It would have required a company employee to show up in traffic court to answer the charge.)

About a year ago, if memory serves me correctly, there was an incident involving a police officer and a UP train blocking a crossing. Apparently, the crew ended up dead on the law and had left the train. In any event, the officer contacted UP dispatch and continued to write citation after citation... and UP ended up paying something like $100,000 in fines. (It must have been a REALLY slow day for that particular officer!)

Erik

[wabash1]

ticketing train crews is leagal and it is only one of the crew either engineer or most generally the conductor. the crew can stop clear of all or most crossings. now if i am building a train in the yard and the yard master stops me and the carmen throw the blues up. and i am there more than a hour then the yard master will get the ticket as i wont let the police on the engine. and yes everytme the police have come to the engine they have ask permission to climb aboard.

[chad thomas]

Sanvtoman,
OK mabee we got off on the wrong foot. I'm willing to let the past be the past and move on. As I stated before I didn't think you had any bad intentions and I was trying to help you avoid makeing the mistakes that newbies tend to make when they first come on here. You couldn't have deleted the whole thread. It was probably removed by Bergie (our moderator) because where the thread was going. Hang around here a while and you will see what I mean about trolls, we get them quite often in here. When you post something just think about how it would sound in a conversation, and if it fits. Or when you start a topic think to youself does this sound like it would be a good beginning to a conversation. And even though I am one of the worst offenders when it comes to grammar & spelling, everyone needs to at least try there best to make legable posts. I am not the self appointed moderator either, But I am a self appointed smart a$$.[:D]

[sanvtoman]

Food for thought Chad. I would like to try to get along better. You know we all have feelings believe it or not. Since not seince we both like railroading we at least have that in common. to tell you the truth i am new at this as you delight in stating so any "good natured" help is more than welcome. If i deleted your response that was not my intention. My intention was to delete my statement.And that is the Gods honest truth. I hope rail fanning is not a dying avocation because i enjoy it.There are not too many of rail fans around so i guess we need to get along better. I will state now for all too see i will try to be more understanding of others. Once again have a good day. P S Your pics of SP units were interesting.

[sanvtoman]

If this has already been discussed please excuse the post. In a suburb near me they have problems with railroad crossings blocked for long periods. For a time the local police were trying to "ticket" the engineer and conductor for blocking the crossing. I e-mailed the station and told them the crew has no control over the situation.They are under the jurisdiction of a dispatcher in Jacksonville or Chicago or elsewhere.Anyway i never heard back from them but i know they continue to fine the carriers.Has anybody else heard of this happening? Once again if this has been discussed sorry. Thank you!