I’m not a proponent for Barrington. I’m a proponent for Sanity and that means that I:
1: Fault the EIR primarily and the the Railroad secondarily for not properly addressing a grade crossing of a FEDERAL HIGHWAY.
2: Agree with the advocacy group and the city that this needed to be addressed and needs now to be addressed.
I don’t live in Barrington. Never have, but I’ve driven on US 14 many times.
[quote user=“RRKen”]
Bucyrus:
The issue is the delay of two hours. It is that delay time that needs to be explained, and saying it was a broken knuckle does not explain it.
Okay. Had a coalie going east, at Tama, knuckle broke, 20% new break. Walked 91 cars back, sure enough. I was carrying a hose and wrench. Had the hoghead toss one down, and pull me up to get it. loaded it on the platform, and proceeded back short of the joint. Of course I left the wrench and hose where he dropped the knuckle. The pin had a cotter pin holding it in. A chunk of ballast did not work, neither did an old spike. There was however a car in Tama yard, so I walked over, grabbed the pin, and went to work. Made the joint, tested it, and put the pin I borrowed back. Walked back to the head end. Delay, 1:45 or there abouts.
It’s easy if the knuckle is within 10 cars or so, but back 90 cars, you have little choice. I am not a jogger, nor is it advisable on ballast shoulders no matter who you are. I am sure that conductor did his best to fix the issue. And no, nobody walks back after loosing the air knowing it is a broken knuckle. So you don’t carry a 90
Actually it has. New metallurgy has made even stronger couplers in the past few years. Not all cars have them yet, some, may never get them.
Current operating employees do not live in fantasy land. We actually do the job day in and day out. Are there better ideas? Sure. But those solutions take time to implement. I personally doubt you know the process involved to modify or design and produce new hardware such as a coupler. Having been around those who do that sort of work, I have an understanding of it.
Look how long it has taken to design, test, and get to a point where carriers can implement the use of PTC. There is a lot of validation in the field so far, and still, software and hardware needs to be developed to work with current systems out there. I know of carriers who have not even
So what? There are plenty of places where US highways cross railroad crossings at grade. The BNSF crosses US 12/20 at grade in downtown La Grange, with the BNSF running far more traffic than the CN would ever dream of. Does La Grange cry anytime a BN train has a UDE? No they deal with it, something that the spoiled brats of Barrington seem unable to do. Maybe someone should tell the residents of East Chicago that they can get the grade crossing of US 41 and both the South Shore and CSX tracks grade seperated if they act like entitled NIMBYS. I mean CSX runs around 50 trains a day through there, with another 20 or so a day on the South Shore, across a US highway. To think its been like this for 50 years! Please…Running the 15 trains a day or so that the CN has across US 14 is not that big of a deal, to make it sound like one is just stupid…
BTW as a dispatcher if a train crew reports to me that they have a knuckle, I plan on AT LEAST a 2 hour delay in them changing it out. This crew seemed to do alright…
Just to clarify, US 14 is a state highway that is part of the Federal Highway system.
From wikipedia: The system of United States numbered highways (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated system of roads and highways in the United States numbered within a nationwide grid. As these highways were coordinated among the states, they are infrequently referred to as Federal Highways, but they have always been maintained by state or local governments since their initial designation in 1926.
Now we have a ray of the sunshine of reality entering the discussion, just a ray, but a ray never the less.
Sure, cut all the crossings, close up the railroad until some mechanical types can get a call at home, commute to the shop, get the truck, go out to Barrington, repair the coupler, and assist the crew. We have two carmen which cover about 60 miles in each direction. If during their normal work hours, they reach the maximum DOT time, the next truck is 120 miles away. But without using carmen, cutting crossings, and fooling around, just extends the amount of time the mainline is blocked. In the winter, double any time needed to perform ground work.
State laws were written with th
La Grange Rd through downtown La Grange has a fundamentally different traffic patte
The town can build all the overpasses they like, but they’re the ones who will be paying for them. Train comes apart and blocks crossings for hours, too bad so sad. The train crew is doing everything in their power to clear the crossings as soon as possible.
I DO NOT take kindly to people like Bucyrus and slimm attacking my professionalism and the profesionalism of my brothers and sisters out there. Their arrogance and ignorance are part of the reason I no longer frequent these boards.
[quote user=“YoHo1975”]
n012944:
YoHo1975:
I’m not a proponent for Barrington. I’m a proponent for Sanity and that means that I:
1: Fault the EIR primarily and the the Railroad secondarily for not properly addressing a grade crossing of a FEDERAL HIGHWAY.
2: Agree with the advocacy group and the city that this needed to be addressed and needs now to be addressed.
I don’t live in Barrington. Never have, but I’ve driven on US 14 many times.
So what? There are plenty of places where US highways cross railroad crossings at grade. The BNSF crosses US 12/20 at grade in downtown La Grange, with the BNSF running far more traffic than the CN would ever dream of. Does La Grange cry anytime a BN train has a UDE? No they deal with it, something that the spoiled brats of Barrington seem unable to do. Maybe someone should tell the residents of East Chicago that they can get the grade crossing of US 41 and both the South Shore and CSX tracks grade seperated if they act like entitled NIMBYS. I mean CSX runs around 50 trains a day through there, with another 20 or so a day on the South Shore, across a US highway. To think its been like this for 50 years! Please…Running the 15 trains a day or so that the CN has across US 14 is not that big of a deal, to make it sound like one is just stupid…
BTW as a dispatcher if a train crew reports to me that they have a knuckle, I plan on AT LEAST a 2 hour delay in them changing it out. This crew seemed to do alright…
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Because of a two-hour interruption that caused no loss of life or property, the IDOT should spend God knows how many millions of (federal) taxpayer dollars on a grade separation?
Please.
Zugman has it exactly right. And we have truly become a nation of children if we can’t put up with little aggravations like this. Barrington needs to remember that it wouldn’t even be on the map if it weren’t for railroads that let residents commute to work in Chicago.
Which was there first, the Federal Highway or the railroad tracks…?
Doesn’t matter if it is a city street, state road or highway or a federal highway, same idea and concept applies.
And you stated /implied it was CNs responsibility some how to keep the highway open, as if they built their tracks across a federal highway when I would hazard a guess that the feds exercised eminent domain and seized the private property of the original railroad and built the road crossing,
If
that was the case, then the builder of the road bears the expense and responsibility of keeping it clear or designing it in such a manner as to avoid rail traffic.
Some points that seem to be overlooked in the rush to condemn the matter as whining by spoiled NIMBY suburbanites are:
This is not a NIMBY issue. No one is saying the CN line should be shut down.
The highway that crosses the CN is US 14. It is not just a city street, only a route for mere residents or commuters. It carries large volumes of freight and commerce in trucks, provably more than the CN.
The former C&NW (which was there since the mid 19th century) was also blocked.
It is quite likely that US 14, albeit not as a numbered highway, was there before the CN (EJ&E) in 1888, as Barrington dates back to before the Civil War…
The issue which Yoho explained, but some choose to ignore, was:
“CN’s Stated plans, their stated train’s per day Rte 14’s current profile and the Enivornmental Impact Report. Based on CN’s goals with this line, which includes a significant increase in trains on the line, having an at grade crossing of a major state highway is simply unacceptable. The EIR SHOULD have required a grade separation.”
One of the posters questioned why Yoho is “such a proponent for Barrington.” Perhaps it should be asked why so many appear to be defenders of CN?
Uhhh…because this is a railroad forum (note the name/title of the forums and its sponsor) and not a “I Love Barrington” forum?[;)]
In fact, I could care less if it was CN, BNSF, UP or KCS, NS or CSX…trains break knuckles, sometimes at the worst place possible.
It takes about 1 to 2 hours to fix the problem.
Get over it.
Still haven’t seen or read your solution to the supposed problem.
[quote user=“schlimm”]
Four points that seem to be overlooked in the rush to condemn the matter as whining by spoiled NIMBY suburbanites are:
This is not a NIMBY issue. No one is saying the CN line should be shut down.
The highways that cross the CN are IL 59 and US 14. They are n
The Solution, which is neatly outlined in the article is that the Federal Government granted money to the city of Barrington to fun the research to figure out how to reroute US14 with an under or overpass. At the same time, The STB (I Guess?) was sued, the case is currently in appeals court to force the STB to re-examine this stretch in light of the Federal Funds and to then force CN to fund the remaining costs to actually implement the grade separation.
This is right there in the article.
So yeah, CN might have to pay for this.
And as was stated US 14 AKA the Northwest Highway aka Ronald Reagan Highway is most likely older than the EJ&E. It is, at least through Barrington at least as old as the C&NW line it parallels.
Not that that will ultimately matter, here. That’s just something people like to trot out as if it means something.
All that matters is that Barrington and the County and the State made their long term budget plans based on EJ&E and now have to contend with CN and CN may get to fund fixing this.
And lets also be clear, I made it clear in previous posts that traffic on the Northwest Highway was an issue. I didn’t just beat the FEDERAL HIGHWAY drum and say nothing else.
NO, NO - Don’t leave “these boards”. We haven’t had this much genuine, readable action in so long, the cobwebs were getting thick. I know next to nothing about railroads, but have thoroughly enjoyed the dialog between all the participants. You can’t have much interesting dialog if you always agree with every poster.
Gentle arguments are always more fun and especially when there are still a few railroad workers that will add their thoughts.
Chad we need more popcorn!
You might missed this from the article:
“Since CN announced its plans to purchase the EJ&E, we’ve had no choice but to oppose the deal, as we have pointed out repeatedly to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), and now before the federal court of appeals in Washington DC, that even a relatively short freight train running on the EJ&E has the capacity to block all crossings and the Metra commuter line that runs through the center of the village,” Darch said.”
Barrington is still fighting to get the merger reversed in federal court. This is indeed a NIMBY issue.
And as pointed out to Yoho, there are plenty of other US highways in the Chicago area that have at grade crossing with railroads that have much more traffic than what the CN is running on the J. The residents of these areas don’t have an issue with the railroad or a sense of entitlement like the residents of Barrington do. A point which you ignore.
+1 I am sure some people on here would not know what a knuckle looks like, let alone how long it takes to swap one out.
I’ll respectfully disagree with that. From the article linked in the first post:
Barrington Village President Karen Darch said (bold emphasis mine):
" “Since CN announced its plans to purchase the EJ&E, we’ve had no choice but to oppose the deal, as we have pointed out repeatedly to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), and now before the federal court of appeals in Washington DC, that even a relatively short freight train running on the EJ&E has the capacity to block all crossings and the Metra commuter line that runs through the center of the village,” Darch said.”
Maybe the Villages could have approached CN with concerns and asked to work together instead of being hostile. However, a brief Google search turned up a history of anti-rail sentiment dating back to pre-Civil War days in Barrington. As early as 1853 people in that community were already trying to keep railroads out of their area. Maybe something’s in the water.
I think part of the issue with anything in this area stems back to an apparent institutional dislike of railroading, despite the amount of dependance on railroading relative to the economic success of the region.
Where did I attack your professionalism?