Willow Grove crossing gates at 611

[rdgrailfan]

The crossing gates at Willow Grove at 611 now take quite a long time to open /close if a train is coming southbound. Once a train passes Grove south the speed is 10MPH with station stop, resulting in a substantial increase in time the gates are down. Traffic is backing up to the increased delays. Anybody have any idea if this is related to PTC implementation on the Warminister branch?

[RDG467]

That's a good question. I got stuck there the other night- the gates were down at least 2 minutes before the train left the station.

There should be some type of 'smart' controller that the engineer could use to bypass the gate control and leave them up while the train is sitting there.

Since the nocturnal tri-weekly freight doesn't return fm Warminster until after all the passenger trains stop running, I would think some smart signal engineer could reprogram the system to allow a bypass, but still give the full timing for the freight.

[leviramsey]

That's a good question. I got stuck there the other night- the gates were down at least 2 minutes before the train left the station.

There should be some type of 'smart' controller that the engineer could use to bypass the gate control and leave them up while the train is sitting there.

Since the nocturnal tri-weekly freight doesn't return fm Warminster until after all the passenger trains stop running, I would think some smart signal engineer could reprogram the system to allow a bypass, but still give the full timing for the freight.

There's a similar situation on the MBTA at Framingham, where one of the top ten stations in the system is just past an extremely busy grade crossing. For eastbound MBTA trains at the station, the dispatcher sets the signal to Stop (which prevents the gates from coming down while the train is in the station); the engineer can then send a radio signal (it's based on DTMF dial tones) when the train is finished boarding passengers at Framingham which, if the dispatcher has set everything correctly, will move the signal to clear and close the gate. Non-MBTA trains (basically one Amtrak and one CSX freight every night) don't have that capability, so for those the dispatcher just sets the signal to clear and the gates come down while the Amtrak train platforms.

[RDG467]

I usually try to avoid that crossing by going to Rte 63 or the Welsh Rd overpass, but I was stuck in the left lane and didn't want to make a hard right across 2 lanes of traffic onto Easton Rd.

The MBTA solution sounds like a good one.

I sent a comment to SEPTA using their website. Let's see if they respond.

[glennk419]

To the best of my knowledge, the York / Davisville crossing has always activated for southbounds as they approach the station. Roslyn also has the same issue with either Easton or Bradfield Roads being blocked while the train is in the station, depending on direction of travel. The only station I'm aware of that had a very short approach, along with 5 MPH speed limit until the trains hit the island circuit, was Hatboro which was a holdover from when that used to be the northern terminus for the branch and trains would obviously lay over in the station.

[NorthPennLimited]

I'm guessing PTC has something to do with it.

I noticed trains started going slower this week to Lansdale since it was activated on the mainline.

Like when they put in cab signals on the mainline and eliminated the crossing gate tower at Lansdale. Now trains run at a crawl from Hancock Street to Lansdale Station on the northbound trip due to cab signaling. Trains used to come into Lansdale a lot faster under the old Reading RR signal system, even though the tracks were signaled for one direction per track.

[SCB2525]

PTC should only have the ability to stop a train at a malfunctioning gate. A gate taking longer would have to be changes to the track circuit and/or programming.

[Nasadowsk]

I usually try to avoid that crossing by going to Rte 63 or the Welsh Rd overpass, but I was stuck in the left lane and didn't want to make a hard right across 2 lanes of traffic onto Easton Rd.

The MBTA solution sounds like a good one.

I sent a comment to SEPTA using their website. Let's see if they respond.

New Hyde park on the LIRR has this too - if a train stops in the station, the gates a block down or so pop up, the cab signal goes to restricting, and when the train leaves, it can only go 15mphg. The gates reactivate and then the cab signal pops back to whatever (usually 80 I think), and the train's free to go.

This is actually a better design because it's all automatic, and also, if a stopping train overshoots for whatever reason, the gates are already down, so it's safer.

I don't get why this oisn't more common. I doubt it's difficult to implement, and it keeps the gates at far crossings up more, which also helps because it moves traffic, and also folks don't wait forever for a train when the gates are down, which means they're more likely to not ddge the gates because they 'know' if the gates are down a train's about to go through.