Trains blocking railroad crossings.

Engineer Spike wrote:I once had an incident where I blocked a crossing for a considerable time. The town in which this happened had found a cash cow by fining the railroad for blocking crossings in town. The company said that it would have an investigation for the next crew blocking the crossing. I had to pick up a train in interchange from another railroad in this town. The train had been cut to clear a crossing. When I took it, I had to do a continuity test, and a leakage test, due to the leader not having a flow meter. The train would not pass the leakage test, by a long shot. The conductor found a car with a badly leaking angle cock. In order to set the car out, I had to block several crossings for some time. I will say that there was a road paralleling the track on either side, and a cross street every block. A car could easily have gone up to the first open crossing.
Barney Fife saw this and multiplied the number of crossings blocked by the total time they were blocked. Soon afterward, the postman delivered a certified letter to me. I told the local chairman what had happened. He passed this to the company. They cleared me, as long as I made a statement of the incident. Soon after getting out of the investigation, I got a call from the company lawyer. She asked me again what happened. I told her about having to set the car out to pass the brake test. She then built a case based on the fact that federal airbrake rules supersede local ordinances.

Bully for you AND the railroad. Just let that doughnut- gorging, fat-bellied little cop have to do without his vittles for a while, or be deprived of his new F150 and see how he likes it! It's always the big, bad, mean old railroad blocking your little p***-ant crossing, or stopping Mommy's Caravan that gets the blame! If more railroads could (or would) do what that other railroad did by bypassing the town altogether, you'd see how they'd cry the blues! Here, they dug a "ditch" for the railroad, Oh, how that was going to solve everything. Harumph!!! The downtown was DEAD 20 years prior to the ditch, and guess what! It is STILL DEAD! Only now they don't have the railroad to p*** and moan about!!!!!!


GF

I deal with this a few times a month at a crossing near work. We all just deal with it. Many times they switch and block the road precisely at the time most employees are getting off work. Other times they are switching five to ten minutes before many of us have to be at work. Yeah we can go around but that adds four+ miles and 20+ minutes to the trip.

Several years ago an attempt was made to contact UP about getting their switch schedule so we could adjust our work times around it. The reply was basically no you cannot have a schedule and we will block the street whenever we want. So much for trying to work with our friendly neighbors.

As far as I know the state law here is still no longer than 15 minutes. I have heard nothing about a federal law saying as long as they want to.

What the hell, we are just pissant union workers trying to make a living. Most of us don't drive Caravans.

fromsuncook wrote:I deal with this a few times a month at a crossing near work. We all just deal with it. Many times they switch and block the road precisely at the time most employees are getting off work. Other times they are switching five to ten minutes before many of us have to be at work. Yeah we can go around but that adds four+ miles and 20+ minutes to the trip.

Several years ago an attempt was made to contact UP about getting their switch schedule so we could adjust our work times around it. The reply was basically no you cannot have a schedule and we will block the street whenever we want. So much for trying to work with our friendly neighbors.

As far as I know the state law here is still no longer than 15 minutes. I have heard nothing about a federal law saying as long as they want to.

What the hell, we are just pissant union workers trying to make a living. Most of us don't drive Caravans.

I am not *sure* a state law would hold up IF the railroad wants to protest it. That railroad is private property and was there BEFORE cars. Freight railroads are under Federal Railway Administration. Even states' "Right to Work" laws have no bearing on railroads. People want it both ways. If the railroad "speeds" thru town, the little pot-bellied cops want to try to give 'em tickets. They want their heavy goods and their electricity (brought to you by coal trains), but they want the railroads to perform magic and "fly up in the air" so they can cross. Let some fool bust thru a crossing and get hit, "WAAAAAAAAA! WE'RE GONNA SUE!!! THAT BIG, MEAN OLD TRAIN JUMPED OFF THE TRACK AND CHASED ME DOWN TO RUN OVER ME! OH, BOO HOO HOO!!!" (At least, to hear the media and the lawyers tell it) If you want your stuff, they gotta put the train SOMEWHERE! Schedules are much driven by the consumer and most certainly determines when a train arrives in a town or yard. Sure, it's aggravating, but we can't have it BOTH ways, now can we? :D

GF

As I stated above, we all just deal with it. Not trying to start anything on this hot button issue, just adding my $.02. I am not sure the attempt to get schedules was even realistic. I have timed the blockages on occasion and they generally do not exceed 15 minutes. It is just a fact of working next to a rail yard.

Like a derailment across the road or dumping a string of freight cars off the track and on to a neighbor's property. Doesn't happen often but provides a little excitement when it does.

The most likely accident to happen at this crossing will be a driver rear ending a bus or truck legally stopping at the crossing. I see those near misses often.

My biggest complaint about this crossing is that it has one of those electronic signals that is supposed to sound like a bell but really sounds like "nung,nung,nung".