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WEEKEND PHOTO FUN 8-12-16-??

tackindytackindyOGR Forum Member
naveenrajan posted:

I was waiting at a railroad crossing this afternoon (Saturday, August 13, 2016) for half an hour, here in Central IL. I saw plenty of vehicles going around the gates that were lowered & the lights were flashing but there were no trains in sight. This was a Union Pacific (UP) maintained crossing with 2 tracks, 1 possibly a siding. I drive through this crossing twice each way, each week & this is the second time in the last week that I had experienced malfunctioning gates here. There were vehicles that drove around the gates the last time too but the gates opened after I was waiting for 10 minutes. This time I called UP at their 1-800-848-8715 number after waiting for 15 minutes. It took quite some time to talk to an available operator. I gave them the DOT # at the gate & warned them that vehicles were driving around the gate. The operator assured me that someone was on their way to fix the issues with the crossing. Waited another 15 minutes & saw even more vehicles drive around the gate. It was a “Monkey See, Monkey Do” scenario where 1 impatient motorist would go around & soon followed by other vehicles & soon the crossing would be empty again. I called UP again. It took even longer to talk to an operator the second time who told me that their employee was over an hour away. I warned this operator too about that too many motorists going around the gate & asked him how long I should wait. He advised me to find an alternate route or call the local police. So after waiting for 30 minutes I turned around & went over an over bridge. I lost 30 minutes waiting & another 15 minutes on the detour but I guess I must be thankful for not becoming another railroad crossing fatality. This crossing has 2 tracks on a curve with a road on a slope with trees on all sides of the road, making the actions of the motorists rather risky.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

 

 

Weekend Photo Fun might not be the best place to post this.... but whenever there is ANY malfunction of crossing equipment the gates come down and signals sound.  So it could be anything from a sensor going bad to who knows what.  They behave as if a train is coming rather than not because it's better to be safe than sorry.  So in your case something was obviously failing in the equipment and it was going into alert mode until it's fixed. 

Number 90Number 90OGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

NAVEENRAJAN, I commend you for your ethics.  

Unfortunately, you found out that the person you talk with on the 800-number is often several states away, and therefore clueless about the landscape or the specifics of action being taken by the railroad.  Probably a second call to the police is a good idea, no mater what the 800-number person tells you.  The 800-number person is likely the only one for the entire railroad (or, at best, for a large region of the railroad), and only has a list of names to call out that shows up on a computer screen when the operator inputs the crossing DOT number.  He or she has no idea how far away the responder is or how long it takes to drive to the crossing.  If the police are called as soon as the conversation with the 800-operator is finished, it might save the life of somebody who does not recognize the danger of zipping around gates at a crossing with trees and brush blocking the view of an oncoming train.

Realistically, it is going to take at least an hour, possibly longer, to get a Signal Maintainer out to the crossing.  The first thing the 800-operator has to do is contact the Train Dispatcher for that territory and report the situation, so the DS can alert any trains approaching that crossing.  Then - if it's during the day on a weekday - the nearest Maintainer is already doing something somewhere else, and he has to either finish or safely abandon it before responding, both of which take time.  He may or not be close.  Usually the territory assigned to one Signal Maintainer is compact enough to allow him to drive to any location within an hour if there is no heavy highway traffic, but, where he has only crossing signals and no block signals, the territory can be quite large and it could take him two hours to zig-zag his way on county roads to reach a rural crossing.  If there is rush hour traffic, well, there's no way to tell how long it could take a Maintainer to arrive.

If it is other than 8 to 5 weekdays, then the railroad has to call a Maintainer from home, which may or may not be close.  When a Maintainer goes out to dinner or a movie with his family, he has to call in and take himself off the call list until he returns home.  While he is out, the call goes to the next closest Maintainer.  And they are off the call list every other weekend, with only 50% of the Maintainers being available for callout.  Therefore, the Maintainer actually closest may not get the call.  So I'm glad you mentioned the police, and we should all remember that the person you talk to on the 800-number may have no ability to directly guarantee response time.

Your personal record is awarded ten merits for making a prompt report to the phone number posted at the crossing, and resisting the urge to drive around lowered gates and past active flashers at a road crossing when no train appears to be closely approaching.

B BobbyDOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
D&H 65 posted:

Quick question for Forumites; after viewing my movie taken with my new camera, do you all think it reflects an actual 1080HD picture?

I'm on the fence about keeping the camera as it just does not seem to be 1080HD "sharp" to me. Other viewpoints appreciated!

Does it look 1080HD on your TV? Not sure if on Youtube we are seeing it played back in 1080HD. The system we are on here can do no better than 720 and I'm not sure that is true due to the monitors.

How does it compare to this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPMZZfa8IM

Last edited by BobbyD
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