Should you stop at railroad crossings, even if not required by law?

I think the most important thing you can do is roll both windows down a little and put the phone down and take off the headphones.

Crossing arm systems may occasionally fail but being able to hear the engineer’s horn is easy to guarantee.

Now, some crossings are marked as “no horn” crossing. Stopping at these is probably prudent in many cases, depending on the situation.

 

If I remember what my brother in law told me a few years ago those crossing gates and lights are triggered by a special setup several hundred feet away. Train axles are a single piece of forged metal. When they cross this area the axle acts as a switch and allows the rails to finish the circuit back to the lights setting them off. I agree if you are crossing RR tracks in a place where you can't see well down the tracks shut off that radio and listen.

 

Safety should not be compromised IF the crossing has gates and lights.

 

Couldn't help but laugh. Joe Pesci played a great role where he and his girlfriend we're staying in a hotel near the tracks while he represented his nephew in a murder trial.
Good flick to waste time.

 

I absolutely despise the rule that hazmat trucks have to stop before crossing a railroad. You don't know HOW nerve wracking it is when your pulling a gas can in the big city morning rush, and you have to stop for a railroad track on a 55mph highway that's packed with half asleep drivers on their way to work. You throw your four ways and just pray as cars whip out of your lane at 60mph with less than an inch to spare.

And for what? Do you realize how fast you will be up and over that track if you passed it at 55mph? Add to that the stare down that happens when you stop at a crossing and see the train sitting 100 feet away not moving. Should I go? Is he about to pull forward and trigger the arms or is he just asleep over there? Then IMMEDIATELY when you hit the pedal the track lights up and the arms start to fall. Then you have to pray your little engine and bugged out auto transmission can cooperate enough to get your 80k lbs rig over that railroad before you take off the crossing arms.

Uugghhhhhh .....

 

I grew up a little west of the O'hare train yards in Chicago. Between 2300 and 0400 they run a lot of freight trains in and out of the yards. In the 2.5 miles of tracks, there are 7 places where trains were required to sound their horn. There are three sets of tracks, the trains are only doing 30 mph, depending on the night it would be a constant stream of train horns - seriously degrading quality of life while not increasing safety one iota. The city and the railroad came to an agreement, so now they only blow as they enter town or about to clear another train.

 

The crossing arms are made to snap off if you hit them. I found that out the hard way.
Better to just punch on through than to stall on the tracks for fear of breaking the arm.

 

I will tell you something else about those whistles. It is a fact that colder air is much denser. This is the science behind what we pilots understand as density altitude. Dense air can and will transmit sounds over long distances. My home in Georgia was about 1.5 miles from the closest Norfolk Southern Tracks as they cross into South Carolina. I have laid on my bed in the still of winter and could hear those whistles.