I saw the other day on the CN, a train parked on the main. Pulled right up to the road. How does’s the train crew turn off the signals and gates so cars can pass?
GtownDave
Dave
welcome to the forums.the crew has an electric control in the cab.just press the button and the gates go up.but just because the train is sitting there and the gates go back down that means another train is coming on the other track.have seen alot of close calls here in defiance.
stay safe
joe
Never heard of any crossing control in a cab. Might be a CN thing. On other roads the gates stay down until the train moves unless the crossing gates are equipped with motion sensors that “see” that the train isn’t moving and raise the gates, the crew has no part other than parking the train on the circuit.
Dave H.
Yeah it seems like everywhere I go here in wisconsin and every time. I get stopped by a train and the train stops the gates stay down until the train starts to move again. And I think you are right about that it must be a CN thing.
On the former SP coastline, now UP coastline there is a track censor that effects the gates at a crossing. The gates stay down if the train crosses the censor.
I`ve noticed that a train can pull up very slowly and get close to the crossing without the gates going down, they just have to start slowly. I have seen instances of the train actually halfway across the road before the gates go back down. Requires a lot of horn blowing.
Some crossings had a box a crew member could open with a switch key and put the gates up.
Old Timer
The crossings are activated in a timely manner through the small electric current in the rails. When the train is going fast the gates and lights come on sooner. When it’s going slower they start when it’s closer. One thing I’ve noticed is that on the crossings with lights but, no gates, they come on much sooner than gated crossings.
As for the gates staying down when the train’s stopped; they will as long as the track is shunted between the insulated joints located on each side of the crossing, otherwise if the wheels are outside the insulated joints the gates should go up. If not we could deactivate them by using our switch key on the crossing box, but this is my last resort.
By the way, I’ve never seen, nor heard of a device that you could deactivate the crossing from a locomotve, not even the new CN locomotives. If you have let us know.[2c][2c][;)]
Someone once told me the engineer has an override key that he can use. True or not, I don’t know. I do know that we sit by a gated, signaled crossing. Our gates come down when the engine is just leaving the yards - a good 100 to 150 yards down the track from us. Our lights come on and the gates go down. The train is just starting, so I know they aren’t going very fast. They signals are just set up that way.
I have seen trains stop just before the xing and the signals never do stop. Then when a car pulls up to wait for the gate to go up - magically it will go up! Suppose the sensor is in the pavement? I don’t think so…Sounds to me like a human may be involved.
By the same token, I have seen a gate stay down, car pulls up and no gate goes up. Then within a minute, the train whistles twice and moves forward. Again - I don’t think this is automatic…
But then…I am just an observer…
I know of at least one crossing in my area that is speed sensitive. The crews often stop short of the crossing (to catch a snack at a convenience store next to the tracks). After a few moments the gates go back up. When they start up again, the detector circuit senses they are in motion and drops the gates again.
On the other hand I know of a crossing that is an absolute circuit - if there is a train in the circuit the gates will be down, whether said train is in motion or not. This caused a problem not long ago when a train, which had cleared the crossing, stopped with the tail end still in the circuit. Even though the train was almost out of sight around a curve and stopped, the gates were down. Usually the circuits will clear the signal after the last car clears the crossing (as designed), however in this case, I’m sure that after some delay the circuit sensed the tail end and thought it was a new train.
If you look around many crossings, you may see a small box on top of a pipe, with a lock on it. Most likely that’s a crossing control, which will allow someone with the proper key to both activate and deactivate the crossing protection.