This is pertaining to the real life railroad. I live in Winona, MN and live right next to the CP River sub. For roughly a half hour today the crossing gates were down, with no rains passing through. A CP crew came and manually shut off the gates. Since then there has been a worker posted at the crossing to manually turn them on and off. All the trains have stopped roughly 30 feet from the street then started again.
Now this is my main question. The Winona Fire Dept. is outside spraying the rail down and in between the concrete and rail. Lots of debris has been blown out. I’m wondering why they are spraying this down. now they are just spraying water for what likes like nothing. I don’t think this should have anything to do with why the gates came down, but I could be very wrong.
Sorry for being vague but I’m curious, as well as my roommates as to why this is going on. It’s really hindering our homework from getting done.
Well first it’s good to see that today’s college students have the same dedication to homework that I did a quarter century ago !! [swg]
This is just a guess, but since the gates work on an electric circuit - there is a battery sending low voltage power thru the rails, the wheels of the engines and cars completes a circuit between the two rails - it could be debris or something could be causing a connection ?? I would think it would have to be something metallic.
Otherwise it could be the electronics are gone haywire so the circuit is stuck ‘on’ as if a train were on the tracks?? That might be more likely, but doesn’t explain the hosing.
I know when I lived in Richfield MN on the MN&S it would happen sometimes that the flashing crossbucks at 66th st. would get stuck for no apparent reason.
I’m guessing the explanation is something is stuck to on. They were checking right next to where the concrete stopped and the ties continued so I’m not sure. Now there are two hoses out spraying. The switch to begin the double line through town is about 50 yards from this crossing and they aren’t down there at all. Still just confusing because they are just spraying water.
It’s only reading I have to finish. I got all night yet to do that. College kids are easily entertained. I’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half watching this go on. That shows how dedicated I am today.
Call down to the local fire house, on their non-emergency number, and see what they say. Just tell them you are curious, I am sure they wouldn’t mind telling you. They are proberly just doing some sort of favor to the railroad.
You might not want to mention that everyone on the MR site is curious too.
since you live in MN you probably get a lot of snow right? the road crews must put down salt to melt the ice to clear the roads. this salt may be affecting the track circuit that is used to detect trains and to lower the crossing gates. too much salt will cause the current to go to the other rail causing a short circuit and de-energizing the track relay keeping the gates down. the fire dept is probably spraying the water to dilute the salt content on the ground to relieve the short circuit condition.