Thsi guy really stepped in it.

That was in my old neck of the woods. Talk about not thinking.

 

Had a situation today where to locomotives were double heading.. they were behind a building caught a partial. view on one of them .. it appeared not be moving.. there wasnt any noise. one pf engineers sounded pf the air horn as they rolled out from behind the building.. i was around 25/30 (tractor length) feet from the tracks . I stopped when heard the horn. they looked like they had just decided to move. they were no blinking red lights until they were half way through the road.. no gates wete installed at that crossing.. left me thinking the what if's

 

Hey fuzzey, I agree, it is possible they were stuck on the tracks, but the "no train horn" thing goes beyond comprehension. They've done that in Wisconsin too, and I just SMH, like you say, moving near an airport, and complaining about the noise.

 

Too bad every cotton picking 4 wheeler isn't in jail bc of what they do to is every single day, all day long!

 

A buddy of mine is an engineer for Norfolk-Southern. They have had dash cams for years recording the dumb stunts of all kinds near their moving trains. Kids putting stuff on the track or throwing rocks at the train, school busses going around gates, etc all captured on video. And they turn it all over to the local police who decide whether or not there is enough evidence for prosecution. In the end the train usually wins. Good way to clean the gene pool.

 

Hi Stude, I've heard of that too, all the crazy stuff these engineers see. A lot of times, there's incidents of animals getting shmeared and numerous close calls. I saw a documentary about RR engineers, and is it true they have to push a button, like every 30 seconds or an alarm sounds? Maybe they should have those for trucks.

 

It isn't always that easy. I live on a road that comes out onto the highway right at the crossing. It is a bit of a hill to get up onto the main road, so if I'm loaded, it means starting in the low hole. I can usually get it into the high split in 1st (4th of 18) by the time I encroach upon the tracks.

Now keep in mind, I can see the signal lights (telling the trains to stop/proceed) from the road as I approach the crossing, and there have been a couple times when those weren't even on yet as I passed them. Due to the bend in the tracks just North of the highway, those signal lights offer the ONLY pre-warning of an approaching train before the crossing gates begin to flash. Still, though, some trains are moving fast enough that the signal light comes on after I pass it (so I have no way to know anything is coming), and then the crossing lights begin to flash as my drives are hitting the first rail of the first of 2 tracks...

Pop quiz: What DON'T you do on a railroad track?

Stop or shift. Especially when a train is coming. Bad time to miss a shift, twist a drive shaft trying to bang it into the next gear, not be able to get off the tracks, etc...

So I'm committed to crossing as I push the truck as fast as it will go in the gear I'm in to get across the tracks before the train gets there.

The gates have even come down on the trailer once, and there was ZERO indication of an approaching train prior to me beginning my turn off the road I live on.

FAR too close of a call for me. Railroad crossings are nothing to fool around with. All it takes is 1 malfunctioning light...or 1 mistake...and things will get ugly pretty quick.

...but you'd be surprised how many fools I see (especially right after a train goes by) who will follow traffic across the tracks when there isn't enough room for them to clear the crossing on the other side...so there they are, sitting stopped on the tracks HOPING traffic ahead stopped at the T (cross traffic does not stop) can make their turns and clear out before the next train comes...which may not be very long. I've seen 3 trains go by (2 tracks) without the gates having a chance to go up before...so never think "it just went by" and assume it is safe to ignore the rules.

 

Those crossings are required to have gates.

The other side of that coin is engineers who sound their horn as if they're 12 years old and will never have another opportunity.

 

I have to agree. I once unloaded in Seattle at a spot where you had to exit via an alley and turn R in to the L lane of 2 (of a hard-divided 4) and execute the turn as you pass over a set of tracks that angle @ 30 degrees away across the road.
(I love this story)

Problem is, a building blocks almost all of the view of the approaching tracks.

I got a clean clearing in traffic and started out. DING!DING!DING!DING! immediately went a bell that I couldn't locate. I hit the brakes and I'm looking around and I have NO IDEA what's going on or why that bell's dinging. I contemplated if it's coming from my truck somewhere, I've lost oil pressure or what.

WHAM! The crossing guard arm comes down on my R side cab roof. Oh. I get it now. It's a train a'comin'.

2 seconds later I heard a short blast of a train horn. 2 seconds after that a train comes (what seemed like) FLYING from behind the building. He was probably doing 35, I'm maybe 10 feet away.

This wasn't a particularly long train, but there was plenty of time for traffic to back up and there I sat with that arm on top of my truck like some idiot who probably had thought about trying to beat that train. All I could do is sit there and laugh at myself.

 

Just glad you was not 12ft foward when it went off