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- From: tssmith@netcom.com (Tim Smith)
- Subject: Grade crossings, etc. (was Re: Deaths on Railroad Prop...)
- Message-ID: <1992Dec27.064746.27037@netcom.com>
- Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
- References: <1992Dec23.162343.29221@stsci.edu> <Bzq4B6.JHA@chinet.chi.il.us> <1992Dec27.042134.28739@cbnews.cb.att.com>
- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 06:47:46 GMT
- Lines: 62
-
- In article <1992Dec27.042134.28739@cbnews.cb.att.com> memanuel@cbnews.cb.att.com (mark.emanuele) writes:
- > In the town of Hazlet, NJ the North Jersey Coast line has a station.
- > 3/4 mile past the station is a grade crossing. This crossing is
- > activated while the train is coming into the station. Train sits in
- > the station for 3-4 minutes to load/unload. Grade crossing has gates
- > down for 3-4 minutes with no train in sight. Cars start to go around
- > gates thinking gates are malfunctioning (local kids used to take
- > jumper cables and short the track circuit to activate gates) Train
- > comes and just misses car.
-
- > This seems like a situation that could be corrected by NJ Transit
- > easily, however when I contacted them, they looked at me like I had
- > three heads.
-
- > Am I nuts, or is there a simple way for them to correct this VERY
- > dangerous situation. (It happens at least daily). Oh, BTW the
- > station is barely visible from the crossing (Bethany Rd.)
-
- There is an interesting situation on the CalTrain commuter line on
- the SF Peninsula. Just a hundred yards or so north of the San Mateo
- station there is a grade crossing guarded by gates. When a
- northbound train stops at the station, the gates go back up to let
- traffic through. When the train gives its two-toot highball, a sound
- sensor near the gates lowers them again. All this even though there
- is little traffic on the cross street, and a station stop rarely
- takes more than 45 seconds. Maybe it's a remnant of an old SP
- experiment.
-
- On the other hand, there is a grade crossing (25th Ave.) about 1/3
- mile south of the next station down the line (Hayward Park), where
- the gates seem to get activated by trains before they stop at the
- station, and don't go up again, so you can wait 2 minutes or more
- with the gates down before the southbound train comes through. No
- sound sensor here, and it makes sense. Trains are usually going
- around 50 mph when they reach the 25th Ave. crossing, and if the
- sensor failed there could be a major accident. But in the northbound
- case, the train is just starting.
-
- I'm often on my bicycle when crossing the tracks at 25th Ave., and
- could easily go around the gates. You can see up and down the track
- at least a quarter mile in each direction, so this wouldn't be
- unsafe. But it's my habit never to let a train go by unwatched, even
- a CalTrain, so I usually wait.
-
- One day traffic was backed up at this crossing, and one fellow just
- sat in his car right on the tracks. I pulled up next to him and
- reminded him that he could lose his car if a train came by, and he
- said "Naw, they don't run trains around here any more." (CalTrain
- and SP have 62 scheduled runs a day on that two-track line.) I thought
- he was just brushing me off, or pulling my leg, but it turned out he
- was quite serious.
-
- Incredible as it might seem to us, lots of people out there just
- don't notice trains at all. Have you ever been on a steam excursion,
- and watched peoples' reaction to the train? While many will come out
- and wait patiently to get a look at the train (and they're not all
- railfans), many more just ignore the engine and train completely. To
- them, it probably looks just the same as the last train they saw.
-
- --Tim (tssmith@netcom.com)
-
-
-