on a csx siding in hamler we had a false activation at a crossing.the signal maintainer called the dispatcher and said someone spotted the grain cars over the crossing circuit in the track.dont know if csx or the I&O put the cars in the siding but an eastbound csx stopped and moved the cars off the circuit.thats a bad place to have a false activation.glad no one was hurt.
stay safe
joe
Unfortunately, we just cultivated a bunch of people who now think that driving around the gates is OK…
Yeah, but what do you do when the gates come down and stay down?
I personally dont drive around gates, as I enjoy watching the train pass, but…what does one do when the gates are down and stay down? It is a real safety issue.
I hear the CN issue 29B instructions to trains for gates being activated and the train must approach at 10 mph.
Does anyone know what normally causes this to occur?
ed
When it comes to highway crossings it is far better to have a few “false activations” than a missed one. [xx(] This instance doesn’t sound like either. The title of the thread tells it like it is. If there is an axle past the insulated joint for the island circuit, the crossing will be activated, just like it is designed to do.
As for going around gates that are down with no train in sight, it depends on the location. On single track, if I can see more than a 600’ both ways, I’ll think about going around after I call it in to the phone number posted. Otherwise, I’ll look for the the nearest crossing that isn’t blocked.
My wife is a former school bus driver and wouldn’t go around them. It was an automatic termination, no excuses. There were a couple of times her students got a tardy because of gates staying down.
Mike:
It would be quite an excuse for the kids to be late! Wonder what she would have done if they crossing would have been activated for hours?
Things busy on the New Castle? Pretty busy here on the NKP. Lots of crews outlawing.
ed
This part of Indiana has country roads almost every mile except around big rivers. Most of the time they were only 6 minutes late. (waiting for cars behind to move out of the way, turning around, which usually required backing a long way to a driveway, and then driving the four miles around the block to get to the houses on the other side)
As for the NCD, it “seemed” quiet this weekend. It could be because I had to work Saturday and missed a lot of the action. I saw or heard many of the “usual suspects” like 177, 197/196, 215/216, 264, 313, L68/69, 230, 235 and a couple of grain trains, but no unusual trains like rail racks or sulpher trains. Some “big news” for the NCD is another ethanol plant was announced south of Bluffton. You can read more about it on the FWARailfan site you also visit.
Joe: I seem to remember something about if there is no movement for how ever long, the gates will go back up? Wouldn’t this be true in this case?
At our site, the gates look like jumping jacks - for whatever reason, there is something that triggers them and they go up and down. Drives me nuts, but the BNSF has been called on them before and they don’t seem to be too concerned. Either that or there is no correction for them in this particular area.
Moo!
Mook, I’ve been pondering that situation over there, and I wonder if it’s possible that changing the alignment of a switch would trigger that crossing gate. That would explain why it has all those false alarms- every time they line things up for the next train, it would drop the gate. What say you, MC?
SJ, that would depend on the installation. We have circuits on our main line that do that; that comes in handy hen the scoots stop at the sataions.
But Joe’s talking about a siding, where such a thing shouldn’t be a problem, or require the more expensive circuitry for such a setup. In fact, if it’s purely an industrial spur, there’s probably nothing except the circuit right at the crossing. Sounds like the crew that bumped the cars wasn’t paying too much attention.
I’d be most concerned about what was happening on other tracks at the crossing while pepole were attempting to drive around the gates, with visibility obstructed by the cars. Usually there are state laws that tell the railroads how far away from the crossing cars must be left (I know that Illinois law is far more restrictive than other states UP goes through), and it sounds like the cars were left too close to begin with.
more information on the crossing.first its on a hill.if you were going southbound your view would not be obstructed.however if you went northbound on that road you couldnt see any westbounds coming.its common for csx and the I&O to go in their because they use it to store grain hoppers for the hamler elevator.
stay safe
Joe
For simplicity’s sake, there are two types of crossing activation circuits - those that activate the warning devices whenever there is something (car, locomotive) in the circuit (basically a light switch, it’s either on or off), and those that have a form of motion detector. If the train/car stops in the circuit for a given amount of time, the sensing equipment detects that and raises the gates. When the train moves again, the warning starts anew.
Two local (for me) examples - at one crossing, with fixed circuits, a train stopped before it cleared the activation point (there are actually several circuits involved - otherwise the train would be a quarter mile past the crossing before the gates went up again) and the gates went back down and stayed down, until the train pulled clear or a foreman with the key turned the warning devices off. (I didn’t stay to see which.)
In the other case, locals regularly stop at a convenience store alongside the track. The circuit is “motion sensing” and even though they are within the circuit, once they stop the gates go up. After they get their ice cream and reboard the train, they start rolling slowly until they are sensed by the system and the gates drop, then they can take off per usual.
In the case Joe cites, it’s obviously a fixed system. There may not be enough traffic to warrant otherwise. So the crew just mis-spotted the car…
Joe that grain train is supposed to be up my way. I&O says they cant get it to us because they cant find a engineer. Hopefully it will get here tuesday night or wednesday morning.
My dad and I sat at a crossing yesterday where an SP unit was sitting leading a grain train about 20 yards from the crossing. He sat there for 8 minutes and we recorded 32 license numbers and took about a dozen pictures of the offenders, then gave that to the special agent this morning. The crew told the dispatcher over the radio, she said for them to give me the rr cop’s number, the engineer came over and offered it to me, but I already had it, lol. This could get really funny to hear their excuses, stay tuned.
I remember one time when I was in grade school, the bus that I was on was over an hour late due to some problems on the Milwaukee Road. Train moved forward… stopped. Train backed up… stopped. Train moved forward again… stopped. FWIW, this was at the CTH-G crossing in “unincorporated” Caledonia…