Western Railroad Discussion > Street running hazards

I dont know about you guys, but my mother always told me to not play in the street. This person was completely oblivious to the approaching train despite the fact the engineer was making good use of his horn. I thought for sure I was about to be faced with a photographers "shoot....don't shoot" situation at any minute.

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from what I can see in the postage stamp pic.....unless the train can unexpectedly jump over to another set of parallel tracks, the pedestrian is quite out of harm's way, at least form THAT train. The engineer is probably signally due to all the street crossings, regardless of the pedestrian's presence.

True in this shot, the pedestrian is safe but she was stagering from side to side and not walking in a straight line. She started on the sidewalk on the left side of the photo but then walked out into the street from behind the truck. She had no clue what was behind her. As for the engineer, it was far more then normal horn for this stretch of street running.

This is another one of those flashing red all directions that the FRA has determined to be not such a good Idea afterall.

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That's a she? lol

-Justin

Here are folks oblivious to the switcher.

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Here's another, granted the switcher wasn't going that fast, but hearing the horn in proximity of train tracks would be a good case to stop and look both ways.

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Here's another, this time along Quint Street. I have another shot from this same area that shows a delivery truck zipping infront of the switcher, looking closely you can see the engine thru his cab windows of the truck.

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trainhorns Wrote:
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> This is another one of those flashing red all
> directions that the FRA has determined to be not
> such a good Idea afterall.


As a traffic engineer, here's what I would recommend for this situation where the railroad cuts through diagonally through a signalized intersection. The signal should display steady red for all 4 street directions when a train approaches. Also, where right turns are permitted on red, internally lit signs should come up saying "NO RIGHT TURN" where the right turns conflict with the tracks.

silagi Wrote:
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> True in this shot, the pedestrian is safe but she
> was stagering from side to side and not walking in
> a straight line. She started on the sidewalk on
> the left side of the photo but then walked out
> into the street from behind the truck. She had no
> clue what was behind her. As for the engineer, it
> was far more then normal horn for this stretch of
> street running.
>
>

Might it have been a more productive use of your time to walk up and keep her from being run over, instead of taking her photo?

- gb -

Sorry, that particular engineer always is heavy on the horn. hehe

you can make any train look close to a vehicle on a crossing with a telephoto lens. . .

Nature's way of " Natural Selection "

I agree!

slugbug Wrote:
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> you can make any train look close to a vehicle on
> a crossing with a telephoto lens. . .

cdub Wrote:
"Also, where right turns are permitted on red, internally lit signs should come up saying "NO RIGHT TURN" where the right turns conflict with the tracks."

That sounds like a good idea, but it won't work. San Diego Trolley and the City of SD have installed tons of those things and people just blow through them. SDPD had a crackdown a few months ago and it still continues.

Marshall Starks
San Diego, Ca.

Marshall wrote: "SDPD had a crackdown a few months ago and it still continues. "

Human factors...what a concept!

"Any idiot that thinks signs and laws fix all problems is probably an elected idiot...."
Ken Whitehead

AMW Engr Wrote:
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> Sorry, that particular engineer always is heavy on
> the horn. hehe


Afterall, when he was a conductor he couldn't switch out a empty yard ;-)

Drivers here in Santa Cruz are oblivious by nature, but the green Civic had stopped right on the rails. By the time my point and shoot Nikon digi had overcome its lag, the Civic had just completed a tire screeching jook to the right. The horn was blaring from the 7952 the whole time. Sweet music...

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I remember this place very well. One of the prior Ex. Dir. of the Port of San Francisco was very demanding about wanting to run full unit stack trains over this track. Not seen in this view is the section through a scrap yard, the 3% grade up to the mainline and the fire station the would get blocked while such a train is made up or put away.

For those who might not know, the mainline in question is the CalTrain main on the penninsula.