Eastern Railroad Discussion > Pedestrian gate failure at Race St, Philadelphia

Earlier this summer CSX installed automatic gates at the pedestrian access crossings to the Schuylkill River park in central Philly. The gates, which have been covered on this board several times,
automatically lock closed when a train approaches, after which a series of red "X" signals light up to indicate that trains need not sound their horns at the crossings (which they almost never did prior to the installation of the gates or signals anyway).

I walk through the Race St crossing almost every day on the way home from work, and they seem to be working well (even if I'm a bit unhappy that they've made photography along that stretch a bit more challenging). This evening, however, just after I crossed the tracks I noticed an eastbound train was approaching from East Side yard to wait at Vine Street for a westbound. So I stayed and watched, hoping to catch the sequence of train approach, gate closing, and signal lighting. But that's not what happened.

Instead, as the eastbound and then the westbound trains passed through the crossing, the gates remained open and the "X" signals stayed dark. But neither train sounded its respective horn at the unprotected crossing, just like old times. (The westbound was running at a good 20mph clip, too). So that's two failures: the gates didn't close, and two trains didn't heed the (dark) signal to sound their horns. Oh well.

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