Eastern Railroad Discussion > kudos for NS police

Last night I was parked near the grade crossing that serves the Hammond-Whiting Amtrak station when a car went around the gates in front of #30, which was nearly at the crossing. An NS police vehicle immediately pulled the driver over, but appeared to give him only a warning. I'm glad to see them enforcing the law and potentially saving lives. I hope this is happening in other areas.

A fine makes a larger impression than a warning.

This is a problem crossing. Back of the station is a parking lot for casino employees and there is some other traffic. There is another way in but it is up and over a bridge down a ways.
Not at all excusing this behavior but many times the crossing gets blocked by stack trains going into the yard.

So you have a combination of maybe someone late for work and over familiarity with a crossing and poor decisions are made. Not sure how the crossing is now but it was very rough last time I was there, not one to speed across.

#30 really moves through there and few trains stop at what seems to be a poorly used station. I see the long time supper club at the corner is gone.

See attached, existing light. Extra scary at night.

Bob

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Excellent available light shot!  All the more impressive given the neighborhood.

billio Wrote:
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> A fine makes a larger impression than a warning.

in my EXPERIENCE, I strongly disagree. not everybody needs a ticket.....

66

billio Wrote:
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> A fine makes a larger impression than a warning.

No! That just makes them mad and want to do something to get even

robj Wrote:
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> This is a problem crossing. Back of the station
> is a parking lot for casino employees and there is
> some other traffic. There is another way in but
> it is up and over a bridge down a ways.
> Not at all excusing this behavior but many times
> the crossing gets blocked by stack trains going
> into the yard.
>
I agree that there is a problem with trains fouling the crossing. However, the alternate route is not that long. Many people drive way too fast on that stretch of Calumet Avenue on a regular basis.



> So you have a combination of maybe someone late
> for work and over familiarity with a crossing and
> poor decisions are made. Not sure how the
> crossing is now but it was very rough last time I
> was there, not one to speed across.

The crossing was repaired about a year ago .
>
> #30 really moves through there and few trains stop
> at what seems to be a poorly used station. I see
> the long time supper club at the corner is gone.

At one time something like 15 trains a day stopped at Hammond-Whiting. It was one of the top five busiest stations in Indiana. Now only some Michigan trains stop there .Phil smidt's closed ten years ago.

> See attached, existing light. Extra scary at
> night.

The crime rate in our community is actually pretty low. However, the station is a bit isolated at night and there have been some serious crimes at the casino. A quiet residential area is adjacent to the tracks, just east of the Unilever plant.

I drive by there at least once a day, and more often than not there are rail fans around. The other day there were three of them sitting on lawn chairs under the platform canopy. I don't feel scared there at all.

I am SORRY. I wasn't referring to community, I never had a problem with anyone.

The crossing area at night was scary as trains would come out of the dark and snow and often there were multiple trains or trains from different directions at different speeds. The original post was about a close call vehicle wise and I followed up on that not being clear what I meant.

Bob Jordan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/17 16:34 by robj.

robj Wrote:
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> I am SORRY. I wasn't referring to community, I
> never had a problem with anyone.
>
> The crossing area at night was scary as trains
> would come out of the dark and snow and often
> there were multiple trains or trains from
> different directions at different speeds. The
> original post was about a close call vehicle wise
> and I followed up on that not being clear what I
> meant.

Thanks for the clarification. I just didn't want people to get the impression that this is a dangerous area.

robj Wrote:
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> Not sure how the crossing is now but it was very rough
> last time I was there, not one to speed across.

The crossing was decent at a reasonable speed. The end of the road northbound is not far from the crossing (traffic must turn west into private property or east through the Amtrak lot to the casino employee parking). I watched a semi go around the gates one day that I was out there. If people are judging train speeds based on trains heading east after passing through CP 509 they are going to be surprised by a westbound train or an Amtrak that can gather speed faster than a freight train. The semi I watched broke the law and should have been fined but the crossing triggered minutes before any train arrived.

The crossing is wide in both directions. The road width is wide and flat and the distance between gates would make it an easy one to run without needing to snake around the gates. It would be a good place for quad gates except NS would probably be replacing the exit gates weekly when slower traffic took too long to clear.

BTW: The interlockings at CP 507 (and most others west of Porter) have been upgraded since your picture was taken. The position lights are gone and there are additional crossovers at most interlockings (including CP 507).