Yesterday afternoon I was waiting at a grade crossing at the entrance of a small railroad yard.A train pulled forward with the locos and the first five cars,then stopped.about 30 seconds later,it backed into the yard,stopping twice,each time for less than one minute.It then backedup and stopped clearing the road,but not the crossing curcuit.The second car in line decided he couldn’t wait any longer,so he pulled out and passed the first car in line drove around the gates and through the crossing.Further back in line ws a police car[:)].He immediately went into action catching up with the offending driver and pulling him over for a long talk which I am sure included a heafty fine and a corrosponding raise in insurance rates.Right after the patrol car cleared the crossing the train backed further into the yard and the gates went up. They were down for a total of five minutes tops.I’m sure this driver will think twice before attemting this stunt again.
A couple of thoughts:
(1) Stuck on stupid.
(2) You can’t fix stupid.
Glad to hear that every now 'n then these idiots get caught.
Nelson from the Simpsons voice…" HA HA "!!![8D]
That’s not as bad as having an engineer MOTION for you to come through the gates!!! [:O]
As I said before some people will never learn.
Take tha’, Mary, Queen of scots! (Anybody here have that Monty Python LP?)
It’s good that he got caught, and I hope he learns his lesson…
Matthew
No, but it sounds funny! I love Monty Python. Where’s that quote from? It sounds awfully familiar…(it better have to do with trains!).
It’s just plain stupid that these people can’t wait for a crossing gate to go up. A few years back an Amtrak train with mail and express cars stopped in a station, just BARELY clearing a crossing. Of course, the gates didn’t go up, and people started going around them. Sure, you may have had to wait for an hour before the train left, but what if a freight train went passed on the other track…
Good thing this guy was caught!
Aren’t there laws about how long you can block a crossing? While I agree that one should not go around the gates, I don’t think it’s permissible for the train to block the crossing for very long. In this day of cell phones, I would think people would be on the phone calling the police after 5 or 10 minutes.
Enjoy
Paul
“You are Mary, Queen of Scots?”
“I am.” “AAHH!”
CRASHBANGCRASH
“I think she’s dead.”
“No I’m not!” “AAHH!”
CRASHBANGCRASH
A few years back while railfanning at Eola yards we had a freight with the nose of the lead unit right up against the road crossing (with the gates down naturally), well the engineer or conductor was out on the nose of the lead unit motioning for the cars to go ahead and cross around the lowered gates[:0]. Well, along comes a County Sherriff in his squad car[:(!] and he stops and royally chews out the railroad employee[xx(] for doing this. Well, that was the last time I saw that happen[B)].
Was it a single-track crossing? If so, I would have done the same thing. I’m not going to wait for some stupid crossing gate when I can clearly see the reason the gate was down. If there were multiple tracks, then maybe you might have an argument for not going around the gates. But on a single-track, and the railroad has not installed decent crossing protection circuitry, then I say go. No wonder people go around gates, when crossing protection does not work like it should.
In Texas,the law says a crossing blocked for more than 10 min the railroad can be fined.This is mostly enforced in small towns to keep the traffic flowing,especially if its a main thoroughfare…And the cops usually do write the conductor a ticket if they want to be chicken---- about it…I prefer to get him to comply w/out the ticket myself…
Now there is an intellectual comment if I ever heard one:
So, let us take this one step further, any law that you disagree with you feel completely comfortable with disobeying. I suppose one could say is it not a good thing that most of us do not share your point of view. Can you imagine the societal chaos?
BK
I am glad this person got caught. There is no legitimate reason to cross when the gates are down or for that matter when the lights are flashing in places where the are no gates.
While I would never endorse someone going around the gates, I can understand the frustration people feel when the a train is switching cars over a crossing. Three or four minutes seems to take forever when you are waiting. Then finally the train backs away from the crossing only not quite far enough back so the gates stay down. That can be frustrating especially if you are late for an appointment. If everything appears safe I can see why some drivers end up going around the crossing gates even if they shouldn’t.
However, I am glad that for most people on this thread, waiting five or ten minutes at a railroad crossing doesn’t cause any undue frustration. For most other people, studies have shown that waiting just 30 seconds at a traffic light raises their blood pressure.
[#ditto][swg][8D] I would have said that too
kevin
NO, this particular crossing has five tracks, three mainline and two yard…so NO EXCUSES POSSIBLE.
Agreed!
IIRC, from my OLS training - only a police officer OR a railroad employee can wave you across a crossing with the warning stuff activated. Unless the law differs from state to state, according to my training, if a crew member waves me through, I’m going.
A couple of years ago a train stopped on the circuit after it passed, likely causing the gates to go back down (I’m sure they went up after the train crossed, then went back down when it stayed in the longer circuit.) A police officer was waving people through.
Sometime since then I encountered a crossing with the gates down and no trains in sight (fairly long tangent in both directions). A cell call to the police yielded no interest whatsoever, even though traffic was backed up a mile in both directions. A check with CSX indicated that a maintainer was on the way. People were taking turns crossing through…