I came far too close to meeting up with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates earlier this morning.
It is a county road crossing of the Union Pacific line connecting Kansas City to Fort Worth. The track runs NE to SW and the road is N to S. Right-of-way is 50 feet either side of centerline of track. Trees are now obscuring most of the outer 20 feet closest to each fence. I have made this same crossing several thousand times over my 61 years in almost every means of transportation one can imagine except row boat and rickshaw. I was only doing about 40 MPH. All trains come from the north, so you always look that way first (fortunately). I looked as usual, saw the train, locked up the brakes on the loose gravel and stopped about 15 feet short of where the outermost edge of the train passed about five seconds later. It took that long to shift out of drive into park, realize I had skipped over reverse, then shift into reverse. I began backing up just as the engine roared past with the horn blaring. They have started only honking at significant crossings instead of at every crossing like they did in years past. Otherwise, I would have heard the horn long before I saw the train.
This particular road has gained quite of bit of non-local traffic in recent years due to an engine repair/remanufacture business being located on a farm about one-quarter mile south of this crossing. It's only a matter of time until one of those non-local drivers won't be as lucky as I was today.
Devine intervention?!? I'm glad to hear it was just a close call instead of a worse case situation.
This seems like a good example for a petition to the county to install stop signs at the rural crossing.
Glad you're okay. I would think that the county road department should figure out a way to clear enough trees to get a good sight distance. Maybe a stop sign should be in order to encourage that nonlocal traffic to get a chance to stop and look. ?
I worked a forensic photogrammetry case in Grosse Tete, Louisiana about 16 years ago that involved a Union Pacific freight train and a teenager in a pickup truck. The conditions were similar to your description. This crossing had lighted signals, but were aimed at the ground 76 feet from the intersection (per my photogrammetric analysis). The boy lived. Judgement in his favor was $106,103,000.00 because he will be institutionalized for the remainder of his life.
About 40 years ago
We were doing a boundary survey on a large parcel that had two sets of train tracks through it. Back in those days railroads were not NEARLY as strict on trespassing as they are now. To locate, we set traverse points at half gauge and then shot the centers as we went. One of the tracks had a parallel "passing track" on a portion of the property and when the train was coming I'd move to between the tracks and then set up again when the train had passed. I did that one day and OOOOOPS there was a train coming from the other direction. I AIN'T a small fellow but I believe I shrunk up to about 1" thick while between those trains. Believe me, I have GREAT respect for trains now.
Andy
> Devine intervention?!
Or would that be Bovine intervention. Regardless, always spooky when any close call happens in situations we've been in numerous times. To use the old phrase 'taken for granted'. Only takes one time though.
I thought it was just me who thinks it's in reverse and backs up, only to find out its either in neutral, park, or worse yet drive. Or vice versa... glad you got it right this time and in time Mr Cow.
I had a situation where the County was not trimming back the brush along the main road, it was to the point that the vegetation was hanging over the edge of pavement. At the end of a long straight section, there was a road intersecting at a 45° angle which was a yield only. After almost getting into several head on accidents from people blowing through the yield without looking, I decided to do something about it before someone I knew was killed.
I knew the County would be hesitant to do the work because of the lack of right of way across BLM lands.
I road'd a backhoe down there one evening and brushed out the intersection so there was sight distance. I'm sure the county maintenance guys noticed, because the following summer they had a flail mower out there trimming along the edge of the road.
The county R-O-W is clear
The big problem is with the railroad's responsibility that starts about 30 feet from the center of the county road. Even then the landowner can let his trees and other brush grow as big and tall as he likes on his side of the fence. The road can be bare and the railroad can be bare but it can still be far too dangerous, especially if the angle of intersection is working against you.
To everyone's credit there are many more sets of crossing lights than there were even ten years ago. Those crossing lights and everything that goes with them run nearly a half million dollars for a typical backwoods country road crossing. I'm sure they are far more expensive in urban areas.
After finishing a day at work at an engineering firm back in the early 80's, I was driving due west on highway 8. The sun was an orange ball on the end of the highway, and I was doing about 60 in my Ford Trans-Ain't. (Pinto Station Wagon, no less!). I was looking at the pavement off the end of my car's hood, when I happened to notice the CABOOSE of a train traveling left to right not too far in front of me at the crossing, and the guy was leaning out the window with his mouth open. "oh, s**t !" I though as my youthful brain kicked in and deduced that the rest of the train was IN THE ROAD AND I WAS GONNA SMACK IT! I locked 'er up, and got stopped, going from 60 to zero in about 150 feet or so. But in the last few feet, I got into some loose gravel and rolled a little closer. I think that I only lacked a few feet (maybe inches) between me and the caboose. There were skid marks everywhere! :-$ :'( 😉 :bored:
The only other close call I had with a train was while I was a student at MSU, and I crossed a railroad track in a little town on Highway 389 on the way to Starkville. The train track at the log yard was a tree-lined tunnel going east, and the only way you could see down the tunnel was to be on the tracks and look that way. I went through, bumpity-bump, and did not even look. In my rear view mirror, I saw the train whizzing by. Cold sweat.....:excruciating:
Trains can kill. You can hit 'em hard as you can, but you cannot knock them off the tracks. The only loser will be you.
I believe in Divine Intervention. Somebody has to look out for all the knuckleheads out there who are not paying attention to what they are doing. I yet live.:-|
The county R-O-W is clear
With the owner's cooperation, they should consider getting a sight-easement that allows them to come in and keep the trees back enough to be able to see trains coming. The landowner could still do whatever he wanted with the property that didn't affect the line of sight. (And maybe get the train company to blow their horns. Do train companies have any signs they put up to tell the engineer when they should lay on the horn?)
Not personally seeing the intersection, I can't really know how easily it could be improved.
You should print out a Google aerial of the intersection and bring it to the attention of the County Public Works Director.
You would be surprised at how receptive they can be to improving the safety of the roads. Perhaps all it needs is surfacing on either side of the tracks and a maintenance agreement/easement from the adjacent land owner to the county for trimming vegetation back on the private property.
Nobody wants to see someone hurt from something that could be potentially avoided.
Maybe it was a sign from above...that you should donate a topo survey to the county so they can start moving forward on improving the situation? Could be great PR, if nothing else good for Karma.
What happened here in MD (last summer if memory serves) may well have made national news.
There is a road which crosses a set of tracks into some sort of work area (forget if it's a gravel pit, truck yard, something). No gates or flashing lights at the crossing. Perhaps a stop sign hidden by vegetation. According to the "news", very little sight line exists due to overgrowth.
Dump truck fails to stop, driver talking on cell phone. Didn't hear the whistle the train conductor claims to have blown. Train met truck in the middle of the tracks.
Big explosion felt for miles and lots of hazardous waste spread around from the train. Buildings still in disrepair, concrete walls of buildings with cracks.
Result was (again, if memory serves) was the truck driver found guilty of negligence. The train company making all sorts of excuses as to why there are no warning lights, clear sight, gates etc. (too expensive to protect every crossing is what they said)
Has the overgrowth been cleared? No idea, got the idea the train company had no intentions of doing anything at all about it.
The county R-O-W is clear
We have "whistle posts" on all of our railroads that let the engineer know when to blow the horn. All of our engines also have a recording device that is similar to an airplanes black box. It records speed, idle time, when the horn or bell was used and for how long, etc... These are downloaded and randomly checked on a very frequent basis. They are always reviewed in any accident investigation. We are also in the process of getting cameras, inward and outward facing, in a few of our locomotives. In response to the post above stating that signals are expensive to install...that is very much correct and installing gates are about double the cost of signals. We have a lot of small road and private crossings that just have signs at them. People seem to try to beat the trains at those crossings less than the ones with the lights. I can't figure that one out, but that's been my observation. We've had a couple accidents in the few years I've been in my current position, all of them having to do with people trying to beat the train. We only run at 10 mph, but with the amount of weight involved, it still takes a while to stop.
We have to maintain a certain sight distance per federal regulations, but that's only for our property. We have no control over anyone adjacent to our right-of-way.
so what you're saying is that through divine intervention you missed a FREE train ride to Foat Wuth to sit in on the ESPN college start up gig that is happening downtown.
poor guy.
you really ain't missing much. besides, they are in the way of those of us that have jobs there. B-)
The county R-O-W is clear
Thank you azweig. Whistle posts. I assumed they would have something like that.
We surveyed 600+ RR crossings in Ohio about 13 years ago, right after a train hit a school bus so they wanted all the sight distances, clearances, etc mapped.
We were setup at one crossing and a car came by looking at us and slammed into a train. Both were slow moving, so no injuries. But, after surveying all those crossings, I am much more cognizant of the dangers at ungated crossings.
