Newsgroups: rec.railroad

In rec.railroad, hammondr@sunroof.crd.ge.com (Richard A Hammond) writes:

[most of original post deleted]

> >"STOP, LOOK, & LISTEN"
> The highway at the level crossing is a major highway.  Given the traffic
> on it I suspect that you would be much more likely to be hit from
> behind if you tried to "STOP, LOOK and LISTEN" than to hit a train.
> It was a 4 lane, divided highway with a relatively high speed limit.
> 
> Given that the level crossings are safety critical I see no reason
> why the crossings on major roads shouldn't be more effectively signaled.
> Granted, some of this is technology change - the speed limit has gone up
> and the train frequency is way down.  But that simply means that we should
> improve the signalling.  I'll settle for stop/look/listen on back roads,
> but even there the auto traffic density should be fairly low.
> The argument that trains can't stop quickly means that drivers should
> watch out goes against common human behaviour patterns and thus is
> especially prone to failures.
> 
> Cheers,
> Rich Hammond

Here in Northern Colorado, we have somewhat of a solution on the BN mainline
where paved, signaled roads cross it.  There is a long ridge (~5 miles long)
that the RR parallels on the west side, so all the east-west roads west of
US 287 have to cross the tracks.  Since coming down a ridge to cross an RR
which is mostly either on level ground or in shallow cuts doesn't offer much
visibility, there are flashing yellow lights on the post with the R X R
signs, which come on in tandem with the crossing lights/gates.  So, if the
light is flashing, the (auto) driver has ~150 feet to slow down, knowing the
gates will already be down.  It's too bad that system isn't implemented in
more places.

BTW, one of the strangest level RR crossings I've ever seen is in Lakewood,
CO, where the Associated Railroads (extension to the Denver Federal Center
of ex-Denver&Intermountain RoW) crosses US 6.  Highway 6 is a controlled-
access 55mph freeway, and yet the AR crosses at grade, with just a single
set of flashing lights, no gates, no warning flashers as in the paragraph
above.  I surmise that traffic is light on this line, although when I lived
in Denver in 1970-71, there were at least three or four trains a week.  If
anyone knows about the Associated RRs (such as who's involved, what motive
power are they using; used to be EMD SWs) post 'er up.

One situation which confounds (auto) drivers is when their assumptions about
a certain rail line turn out to be wrong.  There was a time when UP only ran
trains in and out of Fort Collins a few times a week (Buckeye Branch), but
in the last few years, traffic has picked up.  To boot, UP is using some old
tracks west of US 287 (including I think, a wye) for short-term car storage
(not long-term like the Great Western :-) :-) ) so there's a daily train into
town from Greeley pulled by a pair of Geeps (a 35 & a 40?).  About seven or
eight years ago, when traffic was still light but picking up, some friends of
mine were heading home around nine pm from some activity in a blinding
snowstorm, and were just crossing the UP on East Drake Street, when they
looked out their window just in time to see a UP engine filling up their whole
line of vision, blowing horns and all.  They were close enough to see the
engineer's expression, which was apparently as surprised (and concerned) as
theirs.  They THINK the train missed them by a FEW feet.  The crossing has
since been fitted with gates and flashers.  UP only runs ~20mph on that line,
but there's still no way they could have stopped.

 
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Newsgroups: rec.railroad