Western Railroad Discussion > UP train blocked Nebraska crossing 12 hours

https://www.wowt.com/2020/10/13/blocked-railroad-crossing-near-fremont-causes-residents-issues/

Perhaps a $50,000 fine will get UP's attention a bit faster in the future.........

Oh brother. UP is blaming its crappy locomotive and a "computer problem" for the stalled train and a regulatory brake test for the delay in getting it moving. I'm assuming it lost its air for over 4 hours. No mention of crews and equipment resources being stretched to the limit by PSR greed. 

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Perhaps a $50,000 fine will get UP's attention a
> bit faster in the future.........

Which law did they violate? And if there is a law what is the maximum penalty?

Unless the train had only one unit with computer issues, the crossing could have AT LEAST been cut! What a crock of bull. They should be liable for a first class ticket for the person who missed the flight. 
JB

When I lived in Lancaster, CA in the 1960s the SP divided the town of 35,000 right down the middle. They would frequently block all four crossings for long periods of time. Sometimes when that happened the CHP (California Highway Patrol) would cite the conductor and force them to split the train. I don't know how much the fine was.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

We had that problem here in Mojave compounded by switching until the county built an overpass.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Some town in Oklahoma had the same problem with Santa Fe trains stopping to let passengers on and
off, blocking the main drag for however long that took.  After paying the fine, Santa Fe pulled up the station
sign and never let it happen again, problem solved.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Oh brother. UP is blaming its crappy locomotive
> and a "computer problem" for the stalled train and
> a regulatory brake test for the delay in getting
> it moving. I'm assuming it lost its air for over 4
> hours. No mention of crews and equipment resources
> being stretched to the limit by PSR greed. 

I thought BNSF stood for "Blocking Nebraska Streets Forever".   BSB

State and local authorities can not regulate railroads, even when it comes to blocking crossings or speed. Only the Surface Transportation Board has the authority to do that.

Actually it was the town's fault for building on both sides of the track, just like pretty much every other town and city in the country.

wjpyper Wrote:
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> When I lived in Lancaster, CA in the 1960s the SP
> divided the town of 35,000 right down the middle.
> They would frequently block all four crossings for
> long periods of time. Sometimes when that happened
> the CHP (California Highway Patrol) would cite the
> conductor and force them to split the train. I
> don't know how much the fine was.
> Bill Pyper
> Lacey, WA
>  

Wow so much info. States do have legal rights and Carriers have responsibilities when it comes to grade crossings, it’s just the public(Govt) let’s the RRs walk away from those responsibilities. The public be damned and all that. Let a high roller or public officials house burn down or children die in a house fire, or grandma dies because the ambulance couldn’t get across the crossing and then you know what will happen.... IT WAS THE TRAIN CREWS FAULT!!!!!

Posted from iPhone

Do crews routinely talk to the dispatcher about blocking crossings? 

If you're going to be blocking crossings as you break for meals, or going off duty, it would make sense to put it on the radio what's going to happen.

rgzfan Wrote:
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> ...AND IT WAS MOVING THE WHOLE TIME. 
>
> Locomotive was in Proviso yard and TED was
> somewhere in UT.

And the roving conductor in the company rig was stuck at a gas station in Iowa because the company fuel card wouldn't work.

Most cities were built around railroads and there track without a thought as to doing something other than just a road crossing for cars. They should have done something about it years back and not talking about RRs, towns and counties should have.

Florida East Coast solved that problem by closing dozens of crossings in our area of southern Florida. Maybe even hundreds.

It was a big issue with Brightline proposals.

Posted from Android

Signal indication is what we are told.  So that's what I do.  Sometimes you don't have adequate warning with todays 20,000 ton freighters.  I stay off them if I can, if not I try to block the least busy ones.

Eng.Shadetree

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Do crews routinely talk to the dispatcher about
> blocking crossings? 

Yes, of course we do. We usually work with the DS to minimize the time we sit on crossings. Some dispatchers get impatient and huffy about it, but most appreciate it when we factor that into the plan. If they want us to block a crossing for an inordinate amount of time though, I ask them to instruct me to do it so it's on them and not on us. But if you have a mechanical failure or derailment while you are on a crossing, not much you can do about it in the short term.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Do crews routinely talk to the dispatcher about
> > blocking crossings? 
>
> Yes, of course we do. We usually work with the DS
> to minimize the time we sit on crossings. Some
> dispatchers get impatient and huffy about it, but
> most appreciate it when we factor that into the
> plan. If they want us to block a crossing for an
> inordinate amount of time though, I ask them to
> instruct me to do it so it's on them and not on
> us. But if you have a mechanical failure or
> derailment while you are on a crossing, not much
> you can do about it in the short term.

Thanks, that's how I expected reasonable people would work it out.

Posted from Android

shadetree Wrote:
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> Signal indication is what we are told.  So that's
> what I do.  Sometimes you don't have adequate
> warning with todays 20,000 ton freighters.  I
> stay off them if I can, if not I try to block the
> least busy ones.

That's not a train dispatcher, it's a 98.6 sitting in a dispatcher chair (old Seattle BN office terminology, when the room was mostly full of train dispatchers).

TAW