The topic of using SuperStreets comes up regularly, especially in a context of using it for industrial trackage, etc. The cover story of the new issue of Trains magazine is about street running and has some surprising images (such as double stack trains and modern commuter trains) as well as the typical mix of switchers tugging boxcars.
Bob…Does it include the trains that used to run down the streets of Lafayette, IN? It is an un-nerving experience to turn onto a street and realize your are looking head on into an on coming train. [:O]
There is a 1994 photo of an Amtrak train rolling through Lafayette!
Buckeye, that depends on how much you’ve had to drink. About two years ago in my town a woman made a right turn at night onto what she thought was a street. It wasn’t. It was the commuter rail tracks. Somehow she got the car hung up on the tracks and the car wouldn’t budge. And when people ran over to help her, she wouldn’t get out of her car, even though they frantically shouted that a train was coming. They got her out of the car with seconds to spare.
Train 1 Car 0 The woman gor arrested for dui. This situation should give MA residents a leg up in the “Whose got the worst drivers in America” contest.
Jack
Are there any pics of Schuyler Street in Utica, NY? I used to confront a train once in a while on the Susy Q tracks-in-street when I lived on nearby Fay Street, on my way to Spilka’s Tub & Suds for laundry & a couple of bottles of Matt’s Beer “splits”.
Rob
Bob…I have seen Amtrak roll through Lafayette. The train crews would walk ahead and behind the train. At the cross streets there were no crossing signals, just stop signs. People would stop at the sign, look left, and without looking turn right and there was a FP-40 staring down at their car.
Prior to Amtrak, the Monon rolled down the tracks in the middle of 5th Street. Incidently, I used to have my bicycle fixed at the bike store shown in one of the photos of 5th street on this web page. http://www.monon.monon.org/bygone/lafayette.html
Lafayette is a great train watching location with CSX and NS passing through the city. Of course the BIG 4 Station has been remodeled and moved to its current location. As a child I boarded the James Whitcomb Riley at the Big Four. The Riley entered the city from the west and crossed the Wabash on a truss bridge that is the prototype for Walthers HO scale bridge.
Buckeye, did you ever see the South Shore in its street-running section before the bypass?
I think it is by Lafayette that there is that great PRR overpass over I-69 with the keystone cut into the concrete.
Jack, that seems to happen regularly on our Metra lines - and always on my commute home. A few months ago, an older driver became confused and not only right-turned onto the tracks but began driving down them. Then got stuck…
Is Jack London Square in there? I’ve heard lots about it. Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, Capitol Corridor, and many freight trains go right down the street for several blocks. Looks like a very interesting place to see.
CNW,
The problem we have (in my neck of the woods) is that we have so many Amtrak commuter rail street grade crossings, 7 in my town, and traffic gets backed up terribly. Half the folks are tired of the incessant train horns and the other half want more horns and the Great Wall of China built at the street crossings for safety reasons.
Impatient drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians walk around the crossing gates, and then WACK! One guy on the outskirts of town had a very l-o-n-g driveway from his house that is crossed by the Amtrak, lighted signal only. He had been living there for decades, 30 trains passed over his driveway daily, still he got wacked but survived.
One of the lines runs near the middle and high schools. Kids taking a shortcut, walking down the tracks going to or from school, with headphones on and music blasting. Wacked from behind. We’ve had three of those
Woman drives around first set of wooden crossing gates but decides she can’t get around the second, decides not to scratch her car by ramming through the second set of gates. Wack.
And the worst, a mother decides to accompany her kids to school, all on bicycles, and her nine year old rides around the at grade crossing. Wack.
So with regard to Street Running, are there a lot of these types of impact conflicts between the trains and the general public? All of this may lead me to believe running the trains right down the center of the street might be safer.
Jack
Jack,
What do you think they did when trollies were in use during the 1930’s & 40’s up north? In Reading PA they had & still have trolley tracks down the middle of the street, although not used at all but paved over. You may be right, run the train down the center of the street, parallel to the street and probally there will be less accidents.
Here in West Palm Beach at least once a week somebody tries to beat a train & don’t make it!
Lee F.
Yes, Lee, but back then people read the warning label in their automobile manual that said: “Warning, do not operate car in path of oncoming locomotives and streetcars.” Much of the streetcar tracks in Chicago where I’m from are still in place, just buried under the street pavement. They were running into the 1950s. That’s why I enjoy the forum pics of layouts that include a trolley. A blast from the past. Sorry you had to give up on that 2035 with the bad armature.
Jack
Can a train be pulled over for speeding if it’s on a city street? And if the engineer cannot produce a valid license and registration, and get’s taken off to jail, who tows away the train? Does it get taken to an impound yard?!
Jack,
I grew up in New England and there were old rail tracks in the woods behind our home. Remnants, really. They were ancient and hadn’t been used in decades. I always thought they were from an old trolley line. But a friend suspects they were a branch line for a now defunct railroad.
Jim
Jim,
[:)] That tore me up. And what if the train exceeding the speed limit fails to pull over for the police officer? Do they try that “bump the perpetrator and make him spin out move” or set up road/rail blocks? I’d like to see one of those.
With the price of deisel I’ll bet there’s a lot of urban transit systems rethinking trollies and electric, though I don’t think we’ll see any overhead trolley lines soon. The South Shore commuter rail line, dormant for a few decades, was reopened last year, wasn’t it. Yes, there are a lot of abandoned tracks out there.
Jack
Doug…Yes, I rode the South Shore through the streets of Michigan City, IN [:D] Did you ride the South Shore to ND? I rode the Wabash Cannonball from Lafayette to Fort Wayne several times during school. It was faster than the bus for ten cents more.
That overpass should be over I-65 if near Lafayette. I have not seen the keystone. The next time I am in the area, I’ll try to remember to look for it.
Buckeye, of course you’re right, it is I-65. I’ve never been fortunate to ride the South Shore. Though I’m tempted when the weather breaks to take a ‘personal day’ and ride it to the SB airport from the Randolph St. station and back. [;)] The photos of Little Joes going down the st in Michigan City are breathtaking. As Jack notes, there’s still a fair amount of former trolley track buried in Chicago streets. With the potholes we’re getting, I’ve seen some revealed again.
Doug…I wonder if you could take the South Shore to SB, then head over to Elkhart to see the NYC museum. The Little Joes going anywhere were neat to watch. I remember a special train they used to work on the cantanary. It was an odd looking unit.
I know that car, Buckeye, it’s been preserved somewhere as it was truly ancient - I’ve got photos and an article somewhere around here - the Little Joe’s sure are huge - one is preserved at the IRM but I think it is ex-MILW. I’ve heard that NYC musem has had some trouble. Not sure how I would get there from the S.B. airport. I’ve timed it so I could head all the way out and make it back in time to catch my regular train home. I’d have to pay extra for this but I’ve been musing on riding some other Metra lines too; my pass works on all of 'em.
I plan to ride the CTA’s Skokie Swift next month - just for the heck of it out and back- it runs along ex-North Shore RoW.
Jim,
Do you know what gauge track it was near your house? There used to be many railroads in the US as that was the major mode of transportation for almost 85 years. There are two major track gauges in the USA, one is the 4ft 8&half inch, the other is 3 ft or narrow gauge. Other info on track used in the USA is that coal mines used a smaller gauge track at times and even used horses to pull the ore cars, back in the early 1800’s and late 1700’s.
Lee F.
Lee,
I have no idea. That was over 40 years ago. We lived on a steep hill and the B&M ran about 300 yards further down that hill through a cut in the granite. The tracks in the woods were a good 30-50 feet higher than the B&M main line and would not have connected, but did go in the same general direction. Since they were so close to the center part of our town, I always assumed they were old, 19th century trolley tracks. It might make for an interesting hike this summer to see if me and the kids can find those old tracks.
Jim
Great artical! I thought it was funny about trains in one town having to stop at red lights [:)]
Alex