Our little town of Dalton Ga was held up for 3 hrs yesterday,by a train. total gridlock. one of our major strips was blocked off by a train “in the hole,” awaiting signals to clear. It was so bad that all of downtown was shut down. couldn’t get in,couldn’t get out. One of our local law enforcement officers even climbed up in the cab and gave the engineer a citation. now,according to the legal system,local law enforcement can’t procsecute the charge because they lack the authority. It has to come from a federal or state level. The officer,however,did have his moment of glory on center stage. The motto of this story is,that if you are running your trains,& the wife or mom calls you for dinner,make sure you don’t leave that baby park at a grade crossing. you might get a lot of those little people & constables very angry.
The merchants should file suit against the railroad for shutting down the town, if not for a monetary reward maybe to have them move the signal farther down the line so as not to block access. When I worked for the B&O in Cinncy we were under strict orders not to block any primary crossings for an extended period. If you were going to be stopped for any length of time you had to uncouple at the crossing so vehicles could cross.
It has been many years, and we don’t much have rail service anymore, but my hometown of Cleveland, Mississippi was split right down the middle by the railroad tracks, as were most of the neighboring towns. We frequently had freight trains of 100+ cars, and it was a problem because we only had one fire station, so the people on the other side of the tracks were without fire protection until the train passed. Brings a whole new scale of meaning to “wrong side of the tracks.”
The problem finally went away after much wailing and gnashing of teeth. We built a second fire station.
Trains Magazine did an article on Fostoria, Ohio several years ago. Fostoria is known as the iron triangle. Can you imagine a city inside a triangle of mainline tracks? Sometimes nothing moved in town when a brake hose broke or some other malfunction would occur. [:(][:(]
The are currently building three new overpasses in town.[:)]
A few years ago we were at Fort Frederick state Park in Maryland and while we were at the Potomac River a C+O freight train stopped on the tracks in the park.
When it was closing time we sat there for about 45 minutes until me and another guy decided to walk the tracks til one of us found the engine and asked the engineer to move so people could get out of the park before it closed. The engineer wasn’t too thrilled with being asked to move and he gave us a load of greif about being on railroad property and being around a train that could move “AT ANY MINUTE” and a host of other things.
Quite a few times…Toledo, Ohio area…not far from Fostoria. One of the many times I was caught in Rossford, Ohio …one train had just stopped in front of me. By the time I decide to turn around…there was another one behind me. At the time I was supposed to be delivering a pizza…it was late.
Another time in an attempt to get a delivery on time… I decided to go to the next road over to get around the train. Many roads away…all the way to the town of Walbridge…I found a clear crossing. So there must have been several trains blocking that line over that distance. [xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
underworld
[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
This is not such a big deal in my part of Illinois but is in other parts of Chicago. By law, crews stalled on the law must break up their train to clear all crossings.
Wow! That is a good law. Is that a state law in Illinois…or a local one.
underworld
thought for a moment this was a Jesse James post! 
Local ordinance. Doesn’t always get followed though. Trains then get ticketed, which is a bit amusing. This is the same state where suburban municipalities continue to battle the FRA about their local night-time ‘whistle bans’ at their zillions of crossings.
FJ and G , I did experience one of those “Jesse James” type hold ups…sort of. There is a little attraction in the Irish Hills area of Michigan called Stagecoach Stop…they have a “train ride” Looks kinda like a train but it’s gas powered and it doesn’t have tracks. About halfway through your ride there are some bandits that stop the train. Fun place.
http://www.stagecoachstop.com/attraction.htm
underworld
[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Here in Richardson, Texas, before it was turned into light rail and elevated, the Mo-Pac bisected Richardson’s core (north -south route). In the late 70’s, Richardson police got unhappy with Mo-Pac trains exceeding the posted limits so they ticketed the RR.
Forever after that and until their demise, all Mo-Pac trains ran through Richardson at precisely at 7:45 am (morning rush) with long trains at the speed limit. So if you were trying to get to work for 8 am start time, you were hosed. The Mo-Pac route ran between the Richardson industrial area and Dallas’ Central Expressway and traffic was significant at that time of day.
Regards,
Roy
I get held up at the train store everytime I go in, they always get what’s in my wallet and we all leave with a smile.
Jon[(-D]
follow up to my original topic: The town council of dalton asked csx to attend a meeting today at 2;00pm. quess what?? the railraod management never showed up & than asked for a postpoment for another date. the sage continues. Easter
Gosh, just think of all the pictures you could take while it was sitting there. John
Mad Maxx and his army have just held up the train and are heading to Big Mammas Tavern at Las Cuervos.
Hey david,what are those drivers taking for their nerves???
easter,
the dairy tanker’s filled w/bootleg. Money they robbed from the train would be in the tru-value getaway car
Dapper Dan and Ideal Transfer contain artwork from a museum heist