Power lines falling on tracks delaying trains

Trains Magazine Passenger
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Yesterday a power line fell across CSX west of Rochester, NY delaying Maple Leaf and about 10+ CSX freights. Many trains detoured on the west shore line bypass,
The question becomes what the power companies and other utilities doing to mitigate the very high number of just reported Amtrak trains delayed due to power lines (probably other utilities as well) across tracks.

Here, at least in this part of Georgia both Georgia Power, the EMCs, ATT, and cable companies are all adding guy wires on poles on both sides of crossings that carry any of the mentioned lines over RRs, State / federal highways, creeks, rivers, & other utility lines to keep most lines from falling onto the mentioned locations. That is so poles do not fall toward the mentioned locations.

Now one problem is that if a wooden pole gets broken that will not prevent the fouling however, concrete or steel monopoles are being added at some locations already. For high voltage lines (69 - 169k volts or higher) either double concrete or truss types are added at these crossings.

Of course it is the home service primaries of 7200 V or 25 kV that can be the main problem. Especially the 25kV lines are very lethal but since they only started installing 25 kV somewhere between 5 - 8 years they are well protected by stronger poles and guy wires. Off topic find it interesting that new standard would be same as RR electrifications at 25 kV.

Have any of our posters noted that other states are having any of these protections added to greatly reduce this power line problem? If not maybe time to ask Pols and Utilities why not. Around here after 2 major storms there were not many reports of state / federal roads or RRs having been fouled by power / utility lines. Now residential / local roads a different matter with many lines down.

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Line Wire crossings of railroad property are even more numerous than highway road crossings at grade or above or below grade.

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Mudchicken would be the best one to comment on this.

Railroads typically have rules on how high a wire has to be above the rails, with the required height varying with the voltage. State PUC’s usually have rules on minimum vertical clearance for power line.

One preventative measure is to have a grounded wire placed parallel with the tracks with a height equal to or greater than maximum train height. In case of power line conductor failure, the grounded guard conductor should trip the breakers protecting the line to trip. The consensus is that line failures are infrequent enough that the added protection is not worth the cost.

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The National Electric Safety Code (NESC) sets the standard for ALL utility owned overhead lines, Power, communications, etc. It has been around for a long time, & includes crossings over RRs, Highways, etc.

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Short of removing all such crossings, there isn’t much to be done.

New York state got the remnants of the storms that hit the Midwest the day before. There were numerous severe thunderstorm warnings, and even a few tornado warnings. Trees and wires down were everywhere.

While they’ll prepare for known events, the utilities are not really prepared for emergency events. As a firefighter, I’ve seen many times when the wait for a utility crew may run for an hour or more. That’s power - phone and cable are far worse, timewise. We’ll often just cut the cable and move it out of the road.

Most Class 1 ROWs aren’t bad for trees - but it can happen. Shortlines fare worse. I’ve cut numerous trees off the tracks, and I’ve hit a few, too.