Wabash - you are soundin’ a little radical to me! Course, if the Mookie is a co-engineer and the driver is on the 2nd motor, well…
Naw! She talks too good!
And one would expect anything different from an organization funded and driven from a trial lawyer’s point of view?
(1) Their client(s) could not possibly be at fault? (be truly stupid?)
(2) The problem is always the guy with the perceived deep pockets?
(wish I had the red ink concession every time I have to do a peer review on some dumb highway engineer’s view on how to place or rehab a road crossing… and we don’t even get to check 50% of the work, especially where the paving people doing routine overlays wind up paving the railroad into a giant hole after 5-6 layers of asphalt …but then again, they aren’t at fault in those moron’s narrow minded little world)
[banghead][banghead][banghead]
There is a crossing south of Burlington, WI (Hoosier Creek rd), that is (or was, last time I was there) protected only by crossbucks and stop signs; in addition, the road crosses the tracks at about a thirty degree angle and on a slight rise.
While there I like to take pictures. When all is quiet I sometimes sit in my vehicle (with lots of antennas and lights on top) parked somewhat near the tracks on the side of the road. But sometimes I park in the little park down the road and hike to the tracks.
My point is that when my car is NOT nearby, MOST drivers barely slow down for this semi-blind crossing, much less actually stop (it has stop signs below the crossbucks); but when I am parked near the tracks, almost ALL drivers come to a complete stop and look both ways (they must think I’m some sort of authority figure).
If my observations are somewhat typical, then these “innocent” lives that are being lost may not be so “innocent” as they first appear.
The problem at crossings is not visibility, it’s mentality.
With a handle like Zardoz - I always thought of you as some kind of an authority figure! [bow]
The Los Angeles light-rail Blue Line is considered one of the most “accident-prone” in the country, even though their tracks are protected by gates, flashing lights, the engineers whistles and bells that make a clang-clang-clang noise. Most of the time when there is an accident, it’s because someone has driven around the gates to save a few seconds. A can’t think of anywhere I need to go in that big a hurry.
That’s part of the problem, I’m not in a big hurry to get anywhere, so I slow down at crossings with gates and lights, and STOP at unguarded crossings. But, the other people out there (especially big SUV drivers) are so much into this “I’m important, I’m in a hurry, get out of my way” frame of mind, they cause problems for everyone. (Crawling @10 MPH in an expressway traffic jam, when an IIP (I’m Important Person) goes flying by on the shoulder @60 MPH.
When I first joined these forums, I too SLOGGED through the M&M threads, irritating, mind-numbing, and just plain stupid in many instances. I agree with Ookie, Vsmith, Tree68, and others, let it go.[V]
Hey Katwoman,
Get this, in South Pasadena, Ca. their is an active campaign to have the Gold Line light-rail trains prohibited from using their horns at any crossings! Its TOO NOISY for the weinies that live there. They also want the train to SLOW DOWN to 20 mph through the lenth of the entire town. It already takes 30 minutes to 15 miles to downtown. I have been at the main street crossing when the trains cross and the horns are no louder than a automobile horn. You just want to slap some people sometimes!
I always thought it was
“design a system that even an idiot can use, and only an idiot will use it”
Well this is interasting but all crossing need gates I don’t care if it has 1 train a day THEY ALL NEED THEM so beancounter excutives SPEND MONEY ON THIS
DOGGY
Surprised mudchicken didnt point this out before, so here goes.
A: Railroads dont get to chose where the crossing goes, in fact, almost every at grade crossing is the result of a local or state lawsuit, where the railroad was sued to gain access across their private property.
The city wants a road across UPs Clinton branch line, they have to sue UP to get across.
B: Railroads dont design the crossings, or decide what kind of crossing protection is installed.
The State DOT, or local street dept do make those decisions.
One the other hand, railroads do, (here in Texas) have to pay 75% of the construction cost, and 100% of the maintainance.
So, if these Angels want to gripe, then they should complain to the people who design the crossing, not thoses of us who have to use it every day, and hope the driving public, which sued us to cross our tracks in the first place, stop in time.
Ed
You serious ED?
Up here, Railroads TELL the town what kind of Railroad crossing Equipment to Establish, ands if they say gates, sometimes you can get away with just putting lights, but there will be a tussle over it, and each side will come out scared, but the town usually wins.
If the RR jsut sais Lights, and the town wants to put a friggin’ stick with a bib X, if the Railroad doesn’t like that, they’ll deny the right to the crossing, too bad, until the town complies.
When the device is constructef, the Town pays 80-100%, the maintenace done by the Railroad, btu the cost is 100% paid by the town.
No If and’s or But’s about.
If the town doesn’t like it, they don’t get to cross private property.
Owner of the land Rules All.
Kinda tough to lump all of the states together on how the crossing issues are tackled. Ed, Texas is halfway sane. Iowa and California are two of the more bizzare states to deal with. California behaves like a control freak on an acid trip and Iowa tries to use a touchy-feely town hall meeting approach that rarely works smoothly.
The point being made above is that if you let a highway engineer design and construct an at-grade crossing without railroad input,. the result is a piece of crap that kills. Even if the railroad controls what happens between the R/W lines, the approaches are usually screwed up by factors beyond the railroad’s control. Part of the struggle is to get the parties to cooperate (especially political entities), check the egos at the door and work for the common goal: safety. Each crossing has to be treated as a separate case with its own mitigating circumstances. Wittless wonders like angels on the track, stooges for trial lawyers, will never see the light unless it runs over them. A name and a website is not to be confused with a legitimate concern.
[banghead][banghead][banghead]
I copied that from train-sim.com, there is a big war going on there, and I wanted to see what people here thought.
http://207.44.222.57/images/images2/c/CSX8954FX03-14-04.jpg.80471
Although I’m not familiar with the above local, it would appear from the picture that the driver had an unobstructed view of the tracks, yet decided to ignore the gates and take his chances…He (and his passenger) was very lucky.
After reading all the posts on this thread, I changed my mind. She has only a part of the story. The real tragedy was when the railroads took the steering wheels off locomotives, thus preventing the engineers from swerving in an effort to avoid hitting cars on the tracks. And what about brakes? The railroads are so cheap they use air instead of brake fluid on the trains. Ever tried to stop an automobile with air in the brake lines? No wonder it takes a mile or more to stop a long train.
And talk about conspiracies-what about the mysterious disappearance of the guy who designed the foam rubber train locomotive? They never even found a trace of his plans. Mulder, where are you when we need you?
Ive started writing several times only to erase it. seems what needs to be said takes to long and to wordy. truth is if they are safe drivers they wouldnt get hit at crossings. and to those that keep pressing your luck at crossings my motto is sooner or later im gonna get ya. morbid yes. fact of life yes will i lose sleep over it NO. And it wont do any good to tell the police as ive witness them brake the same law they are to enforce. even turn the lights on run thru the crossing and turn them off. I am sure they wrote them selves a ticket later for their actions. right after they finished their coffee and donuts.
I love this!
Well it took an accident to get a crossing upgraded here in ohio.people just need to stop look listen and live.
stay safe
Joe
P42
your picture says it all, the 99% vast majority of crossing accidents are caused by people ignoring warning lights, ignoring the oncoming train, going around the gates and getting smacked!
Stupid people get killed doing Stupid things.