Do crossing signals ever fail?I saw one episode of Rescue 911 when an older couple went across a crossing,the 2 runaway boxcars hit their car and the signals never activated.
Certainly…as with any kind of mechanical equipment,they can fail in any number of ways…once reported,we are notified by the dispatcher to provide protection at the crossing…varies with the situation…
Yes.
There are many ways they can fail.
Motors can burn out o lower gates.
Gates can break.
Sometimes a single or pair of cars isn’t enough to trip the signal. (I heard this was problematic with single RDCs too).
Wires can get cut, or connections can fail.
Thats why lots of time is spent maintaining crossing signals.
Sadly, there are still a lot of EUFs.
(End User Failure) where he warning devices are ignored entirely . . . .
In Cedar Rapids in 1998 I believe it was, at the the C Street grade-crossing just west of the Cedar River on the UP (former CNW main), the lights and gates were randomly turning on/off with no train anywhere near. It was especially dangerous because the approach of a westbound coming off the bridge was obscured by the Rock Island’s overpass (Manly-Cedar Rapids-Iowa City-Burlington). I called the UP’s emergency number on the signal box, and two days later the problem was still occurring. I talked to another rail fan and he’d called them as well, and a week later they seemed to be fixed.
While raifanning I often (~weekly) hear train crews either reporting or being notified of malfunctioning grade crossings. The most recent one malfunctioned when a semi smacked into it doing 35mph [:)] Since I have been railfanning much more over the last year, I have come to respect many things I previously (foolishly) took for granted.
Back in the fall of 1996, I was starting grad school in Bowling Green, Ohio along Conrail’s route between Toledo and Columbus. Across the street from my apartment, there was a large empty lot and then the tracks with a clear view of the crossing just to the north of my place. One evening, I was watching a northbound come through town at track speed from my window. It was after dark, and I had a clear view of the crossing signals. About mid-train, I saw the gates going back up, and then the lights turned off (keep in mind that this was well after sunset). The train cleared the crossing, the lights came back on, the gates came down for a few seconds, and then the gates went up with the lights turning off. I called the Bowling Green police department and told them what happened. At the time, I forgot that I had my scanner in my other room, but the police obviously called Conrail since the next train that came through eased to a stop just short of the crossing and then eased through once the signals came on with the gates down. After seeing that, I never assume that something isn’t coming if the signals aren’t on. Also, I’ve seen hi-rail trucks that don’t trigger the signals so I always approach a crossing expecting a train or something to be coming.
Kevin
Hi-rail trucks can trigger the signals if they have the brushes down.
What happens to signalized crossings when there is a general power blackout?
Do the crossing gates also fail to function, or is it more like the phone company, which has some backup saved on batteries?
They keep running without interruption, at least for a few days.
Every signal system, both wayside and grade-crossing, runs on battery in order to give it clean filtered D.C. power. The D.C. batteries are fed by an A.C. powered charger, which runs off utility line voltage. You can specify however much battery you want to put in the instrument house or battery vault. Typical battery capacity is 72 hours with no utility power, driving the signal system at maximum expected cycles – for example, if the line has 10 trains a day, you expect the signal system to have at least 10 cycles a day, plus a few extra for safety margin. For some remote installations where we think the utility company might be a little desultory about putting their lines back up, we specify as much as 120 hours. If need be, the maintainer can manually recharge the batteries if the utility company is really in trouble.
Grade-crossing signal instrument houses have power-on lights on them – a constant-lit bulb that can be seen by both an approaching train and by the signal maintainer driving over the crossing. No light means no utility power – the train crew reports it to the signal desk.
Similarly the copper-wire phone companies run everything on battery power, to give clean D.C. If you went into the basement in a central office, you’d see some enormous batteries fed by utility power. There’s sufficient capacity in the battery system at the central office to run the telephones served by that office for 2-3 days, but the office is nevertheless equipped with a standby diesel-generator set that starts immediately upon utility power failure.
Microwave transmission systems and
[quote user=“Railway Man”]
They keep running without interruption, at least for a few days.
Every signal system, both wayside and grade-crossing, runs on battery in order to give it clean filtered D.C. power. The D.C. batteries are fed by an A.C. powered charger, which runs off utility line voltage. You can specify however much battery you want to put in the instrument house or battery vault. Typical battery capacity is 72 hours with no utility power, driving the signal system at maximum expected cycles – for example, if the line has 10 trains a day, you expect the signal system to have at least 10 cycles a day, plus a few extra for safety margin. For some remote installations where we think the utility company might be a little desultory about putting their lines back up, we specify as much as 120 hours. If need be, the maintainer can manually recharge the batteries if the utility company is really in trouble.
Grade-crossing signal instrument houses have power-on lights on them – a constant-lit bulb that can be seen by both an approaching train and by the signal maintainer driving over the crossing. No light means no utility power – the train crew reports it to the signal desk.
Similarly the copper-wire phone companies run everything on battery power, to give clean D.C. If you went into the basement in a central office, you’d see some enormous batteries fed by utility power. There’s sufficient capacity in the battery system at the central office to run the telephones served by that office for 2-3 days, but the office is nevertheless equipped with a standby diesel-generator set that starts immediately upon utility power failure.
RWM
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But who would you call with it? Everyone else has nothing but a cell phone these days! Or won’t go to work because the power is off.
RWM
The operator, 9-1-1, dear Aunt Gert with her rotary phone, folks in unaffected regions (outside a hurricane zone, for instance), et al… – al
I remember the local crossing gates used to get stuck down years ago, long since replaced. It was interesting because one day me and my friend helped the police out by raising the arm so cars could go past while the officer took care of the one across the street. He did it with a lot less effort.
Ones around here turn on all the time when we get thunder and lightning ( about once a week in the summer). Drive up, stop and wait, if you don’t get a train in 20 seconds or it is obvious they have been on for a while, roll on though carefully.
A few years ago at the crossing next to our shop we had a problem with the lights. Every time the wind would blow at a certain speed the lights would activate. Never did find out what caused that to happen. It was strange but it happened.
Another time the bell quit working, and they had to replace it.
Brian (KY)
The fact that grade crossing signals can fail from time to time is a good argument against allowing communities to bans trains from blowing for grade crossings.
Is that because of a motion sensor sensitive to thunder (or to light - lightning)?
One rule states that any movement with 12 axles or less must approach all grade crosings equipped w/lights and/or gates prepared to stop until it can be seen that the devices are working properly.
One of the scariest elements is human error. Sometimes, crossing gates and other devices are turned off for maintenance purposes, etc., so that vehicular traffic will not be disrupted. The problem arises if a railroad maintainer forgets to turn the crossing device back on, and leaves the scene. Tragically, innocent people have been violently killed in such scenarios.
And because of such accidents that KP described… when a maintainer needs to jumper out a x-ing for track work he must call the train dispatcher and have a x-ing activation failure message created before they do anything. That way if the maintainer does forget, the dispatcher is still protecting the x-ing until they hear from somebody.