Eastern Railroad Discussion > Lowboys and crested tracks.

There was a video on here about two weeks ago showing a lowboy truck with a heavy piece of equipment on it. It looked like some form of crane. The trailer had 3 rear axles so it wasn't your average load. It was trying to cross at grade a crested railway crossing. You can go to "your tube" and search "Train wreck in Mer Rouge" if you have't seen it.

If you haven't seen it, the original thread was on the Western board. http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3541419,page=1

There is a crossing not too far from me that came to mind when I saw the original thread so I went to the area today and I had my little point and shoot in my pocket so I stopped and took some pictures.

The area is in Crestwood, Ky., about 20 miles from downtown Louisville. It's on the CSX "Short Line," or LCL, the line that runs from Louisville to Cincinnati. The area is a small town of about 4800 people. Speed limit at the crossing is 35 mph . To the SW the tangent is about 0.7 miles, to the NW it's about 0.4 miles.

The first set of pictures were looking NE of the crossing. The next set were looking SW. The last group is along the curved section looking towards the tracks.

John

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1. Looks pretty simple to understand to me.
2. Overall view close to what drivers see. I didn't step out into traffic.
3. You can see how this crossing is crested.

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These were looking towards the southwest.

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These were taken from the curved road. The first sign is about 150 yards from the crossing. As you get to the crossing you see the signs next to the crossing. There is a "No right turn on red" at the traffic light, the "Don't stop on tracks," and the warning about the crest and instructions for trucks to turn around and use KY-22 (viaduct about a quarter mile away.) The third show another view of the crossing.

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This was taken as cars crossed. I was standing. The camera would have been about 5'-6" above the ground.

So, I'm sure that someone has stuck a truck on this in the past. There are a few scrapes in the asphalt. "Oh, those signs aren't for me."

I didn't have my SLR with me when I left the house. The point and shoot had to stand in for these.

John

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You did a good job of documenting the Louisville District of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet signing of this location. If only the public will pay attention then some of the incidents that have been mentioned on this forum( all to often) can be avoided.
Ky-Woody

This crossing is not to far from where I live also. Last spring, my wife and I saw a regular van type eighteen wheel tractor trailer stranded on it. It was heading south. The front wheels of the tractor were on the pavement on the south side of the tracks. The rear wheels of the trailer were on the pavement on the north side of the tracks. The rear wheels of the tractor were a couple of feet over the pavement right above the tracks. We must have arrived there just after it had happened. We were going west on 146 and were stopped by the traffic signal at the 329 intersection. We noticed the driver kept making the rear tractor wheels turn. Finally he got out and saw what happened.
Part of the problem is that the crossing is on a state highway, 329. He was probably routed across by GPS. The signs show a low-boy. If he noticed the signs, he might have thought he could have made it. However, no eighteen wheeler of any description is going to make it across.
My barber is located in Crestwood. I told him about seeing this event. He laughed and said it was at least a weekly occurrence.
ALLEN

Well-documented.
It's pretty obvious that the driver either ignored all these warnings or thought he had a chance to make it across.

I wonder why railroads do this? I see this raising of tracks happening everywhere at crossings.
In Folkston, GA the CSX recently rehabbed all three downtown crossings. At one, they raised the tracke so high it's almost a speed hump. If you hit it faster than 10MPH your wheels come off the ground.
I'm sure this is for drainage purposes, but raising the tracks ends up causing this kind of incident sooner or later.

Seems like they could do something else rather than creating these dangerous "hills".

Danny Harmon
Tampa

Nobody wins at crossing accidents...people are injured / killed, massive amounts of cost is incurred from medical expenses, destroyed equipment, lawyer fees, and payouts. One sign I don't see that the railroads should make mandatory is a sign with a phone number & crossing ident. # so that in the event of a blocked crossing / stalled or stuck truck / whatever, can be called in and then dispatcher can make the attempt to alert the train crew of an impending accident. Signs like this at potential hazardous crossings throughout a railroads track network, would cost less than the cost of replacing one locomotive. I have seen only a couple crossings around the Chattanooga area - NS & CSX - that have similar signs posted.

oldSALrailfan Wrote:
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> Nobody wins at crossing accidents...people are
> injured / killed, massive amounts of cost is
> incurred from medical expenses, destroyed
> equipment, lawyer fees, and payouts. One sign I
> don't see that the railroads should make mandatory
> is a sign with a phone number & crossing ident. #
> so that in the event of a blocked crossing /
> stalled or stuck truck / whatever, can be called
> in and then dispatcher can make the attempt to
> alert the train crew of an impending accident.
> Signs like this at potential hazardous crossings
> throughout a railroads track network, would cost
> less than the cost of replacing one locomotive. I
> have seen only a couple crossings around the
> Chattanooga area - NS & CSX - that have similar
> signs posted.


The small "CSX" signboard just below the flashers is the crossing ID signage.

John R -- CP Spring
Carlisle, PA

Railroads don't raise crossings to create speed bumps. They are at that level so the tracks are level. If you demanded they lower the tracks, there would be massive amounts of dirt work required through town and not all of 'town' is at that level and the trains don't work well going up and down like the streets do.

Its All about common sense,Back in the 70S & 80S I hauled cars for a living,I drove all over ohio,WV,KY and TN and have never been stuck on train tracks.In towns where the dealer was accross the tracks i just unloaded and drove the cars over,I think Today everybody is just in a big hurry,Oh one more thing i never had and Accedent in my Semi-truck Either...Scoob

Ah Crestwood... Was just talking to my neice.. She may be moving to Crestwood.... Glad I will still be near the tracks when I visit next May for the Derby.....Currently she lives off of Frankfort Ave....Only loss will be I cannot walk to the Frankfort Ave Beer Depot if she moves.....

Small is the word there John! Probably have passed hundreds of them and not noticed them.

There are crossing inventory signs on both sides of the street and both side of the tracks, however, someone took a bite out of the one on the NW side of the intersection. The other one was OK. Inventory number should show 345541G but the 00T 18.01 would also be enough for CSX to identify the crossing. Other railroads have similar signs. Some are different colors but they have similar information. There are some older ones that have been around for 40, or 50 years ago, maybe longer that are just embossed metal with the crossing number. You need to know the railroad and the 800 number. I keep that info for the railroads around me in my contacts list on my phone

Just in case you didn't know, these signs are (should) posted at every crossing with the exception of some museum lines or industrial property. If there is a problem at a crossing (car on the tracks, defective signal, etc...) a call to the number should get you help in seconds. I have called CSX and NS several times and never have I heard more than 3 rings before I got an answer. I called in a false activation of a signal one day and less than two minutes later I heard the dispatcher advise a train that, "Someone just called in a false activation at Lucas Ln." and ordered him to approach at restricted speed.

It's unfortunate that there are crossings like this but many of these were established before Henry Ford rolled his first horseless carriage out of the shop. Wagons only had problems when the team couldn't pull a load up that hill. The rails are built up on a pile for drainage

John

1.) Modern CSX Crossing Inventory
2.) Older embossed sign. I think this was L&I RR but it was probably put up before there was an L&I RR. Just the number and US DOT AAR.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/14 13:24 by wa4umr.

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The crested crossings are already shaping up to be an issue for Florida East Coast, and the plan to add a second track for All Aboard Florida operations.

The tracks are generally at road grade level in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St Lucie and Indian River counties (Fort Lauderdale to Vero), with relatively few overpasses. In many locations, the railroad is crested, with the former second track right of way providing a gentle approach. If the right of way is raised for the new track, the humpback from the adjacent highway will be a problem. Raising the highway would have its own issues as it would create more blind spots in highway intersections that now have good visibility.

Thanks for the pic John.

oldSALrailfan Wrote:
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> Thanks for the pic John.


Well thank you. I just used a point and shoot. There are threads from time to time about this subject and I was in the area and had some time so I took a few pictures and tried to describe them the best I could.

John

In South Carolina ALL crossings are marked with a truck dragging the tracks so now the sign means nothing.

I realize why the railroads do it, but it most certainly changes the contour when track crews add subgrade or ballast at the these crossings for drainage or whatever. The three crossings I cited in Folkston, GA were once almost level. After track crews rehabbed them, two of the three became these dangerous "Crested crossings" we're discussing.
Sooner or later, some yahoo pulling a Caterpillar on a Lowboy is gonna get stuck on one of them.

Danny Harmon
Tampa

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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> Railroads don't raise crossings to create speed
> bumps. They are at that level so the tracks are
> level. If you demanded they lower the tracks,
> there would be massive amounts of dirt work
> required through town and not all of 'town' is at
> that level and the trains don't work well going up
> and down like the streets do.