Isn’t this issue of cars fouling crossings going to be solved with PTC? I had understood that major grade crossing protection changes will come with PTC.
As I recall, it would “see” a fouling vehicle near grade crossings, and stop trains. I suppose it will use some of those remote sensors that we were talking about in that thread about the guy who wants to find a new way to trigger crossing signals to make them cheaper, and then nationalize grade crossings.
Trucks with their size and weight are significant hazards - 2500 pound cars are not significant when impacted by 5000, 10000, 20000 ton trains. With that being said, the carriers don’t want to hit either and a great deal of time, money and effort, has been expended by the carriers to improve the reporting chain.
Anecdote from the past. Report of a tractor-trailer being hung up on a crossing in a specific city. All rail traffic was stopped. Specific city was notified. 30 minutes later specific city reports back that all crossings in the city are clear and it is OK to resume normal traffic. 20 minutes after traffic was resumed, train reports bisecting loaded moving van at crossing 100 yards outside the boundry of the specific city. (this all occurred prior to the implementation of the DOT crossing numbers)
The biggest difficulty railroads have in communicating with the civilian world is defining where HERE actually is.
About GPS –
At my location we have a US highway on one side of CSX and my street on the other side. They are about 30 ft from the centerline of the RR tracks ( actually roads are by easement on the 50 ft RR ROW ). All My GPS will say " turn left then turn right ". Now the GPS has the RR track on its display. Garmin told me that there was no reason for the GPS to say " turn left, cross RR track, then turn right ". I have seen many locations that cross displayed RR track(s) that are not annunciated which can be very misleading to some drivers especially in strong rain storms, dark nights, or fog or combinations of them.
I also have a Garmin GPS - it does not display railroad tracks! Either crossing the highway or running parallel to the highway. It doesn’t display them AT ALL!
Mine is a tom-tom
The GPS is probably fine - It’s the GIS, the computer and the GIS programmers that are a little suspect…
[X-)][X-)][X-)] geez…
Mine is a Trimble 5800 with a VRS & Blutooth - It don’t need no stinkin map. (and I don’t trust the accuracy or precision of the GIS)
I have no end of problems with the various map programs as they relate to locating fire calls. The spelling and syntax have to be just right or the programs will send you to Timbuktu.
I have an app on my smart phone that will tell me exactly how to get to the location of the call - if it deciphers it correctly. That’s why there’s a county map hanging outside my bedroom door.
The biggest problem is the various “components” involved. There are a couple dozen dispatchers that work in our 9-1-1 center - that’s two dozen different ways the same address might get input into the computer.
Even if the address is pulled directly off the phone company ANI, it may not square with what the GIS has for exactly the same location.
I’ve taken to pulling the lat/lon off a map program to enter exact locations in my fire reports.
My wife has Garmin that shows RR and I have her hand me down older one that also shows RRs. She is in real estate and when she 8 or 10 houses to show that GPS makes her day. An advantage to Garmin is they use military sats.
I did a little GIS in school. Geocoding addresses and the like is a pain - and this was a smaller project just mapping out a few dozen properties.
[quote user=“zugmann”]
[quote user=“tree68”]
I have no end of problems with the various map programs as they relate to locating fire calls. The spelling and syntax have to be just right or the programs will send yo
What’s needed, though, is for everyone to be on the same sheet of music, if you will.
That means that the folks who put the 9-1-1 computer aided dispatch system together have to be in tune with the folks who put the map programs together.
Such a system also has to know all the aliases. It might be easy to deal with County Route 16 vs County Road 16, but the systems also have to know that the road is sometimes called the Jenkins Road…
Too, mailing addresses are sometimes different from the actual town where the address is located. The residents in my district are served by four different post offices.
My house is finally, after some years, showing up correctly when I put my address in.
It’s getting better.
I believe there are locations
The signal bungalow is not very big (5’ x 5’ ?), is of rust-colored weathering steel, was behind her, on the other side of the street (maybe 100 ft. away ?), and essentially in a parking space about 3 parking spaces back in the adjoining industry there - N 40 33’ 27" W 75 29’ 9" - with no visible lettering on the side facing the street.
However, in front of her was a reflective “32” in a vertical orientation - which means ? to a non-railroader or railfan ? It’s the milepost from Reading, PA.