Hazmat and Railroad crossing question?

When the gate is down
The lights are flashing
And the whistle howls in pain
Yet you stay on the tracks
Ignoring the facts
You can't blame the wreck on the train
-Socrates

 

We are on a double track main, a strategic Union Pacific Amtrack line. Track speed for freight is 80 exactly and passenger is exactly 79. We have two trains for passengers every 12 hours between Chicago and Little Rock (Texas Eagle) usually at night. When things are normal and the line is doing well, the trains ROLL. and how.

You could tell when slow orders are in place when the dispatch set up the ABS signalling (Automatic block System) to limited clear restricting to 40 or less. Or establish a rolling meet where two trains side by side pass each other presenting a special risk to our crossings, you will see one locomotive set coming on blowing for it and not know there is another train next to it also blowing. Ground shakes when that happens.

It is also a national defense railroad line. in time of war such as 2003 you can hear the screeching of hundreds of flatcars rolling empty at better than 80 for loading of military tanks out of Texas or southern ports just prior to invasion of Iraq. It took weeks of that horrible screeching. St Louis is where the US Transport Command organizes these trains on MAIN scheduling, meaning priority over everything else on the railroad.

 

Are there any bad crossing areas in New Mexico that I should be aware of?

 

When hauling hazmat remember the rule of thumb , if something really bad happens , run until you can hold up your thumb at arms length and cover up the truck...
Well we were hauling explosives and it's an unwritten rule , but we all understood

 

It's a bad ground. Alamagordo means land of the dead. I never really had a good day down there crossing the weapons testing ground area. Nothing bad happened, it was more of a spiritual problem inside of me with such a dark land.

 

In your attached photo yes, you would stop there even if those lights aren't flashing. The green lights they are talking about are encountered in cities where rail traffic shares the road with you (like Trax in Salt Lake City) and in those cases you do what the traffic signals are telling you to do.