Crashes’ toll on engineers often ignored

By  Dean Narciso

The Columbus Dispatch Sunday February 5, 2012 6:20 AM

 

Retired engineer Harold Zweifel still shudders at the memory of a crash decades ago that killed a woman.

Thirty years after pulling the brake lever on his last freight run, 90-year-old Harold Zweifel still sees the crashes.

 

His front-row seat — a necessity for train operators who scan up to a mile ahead for vehicles, trespassers or animals — also can be a curse when the speeding hulks of steel and cargo can’t be stopped.

 

Zweifel, a South Side resident, recalled the sports car zooming alongside as his train sped toward Dayton about 1970, the car’s young driver smiling and bobbing to music on a parallel road.

 

“She waved at us as she went by,” he said. “We had no idea she was going to turn on us.”

 

Read more at: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/05/crashes-toll-on-engineers-often-ignored.html

 

 

Railroad crossing where 4 Brunswick High students died in car crash will be fixed

By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer

on October 11, 2012 at 10:53 AM

 

COLUMBIA TWP. -- Authorities will spend $450,000 to fix the steep railroad crossing on Boston Road where four Brunswick High School students died in a car accident in June.

 

Christine Myers, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said 90 percent of the cost will be paid with federal safety funds that the state administers. Local governments will pay the rest. The work will begin in June 2013, and it is expected to take most of the summer.

 

Read more at:  http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/10/site_to_be_fixed_where_4_bruns.html#incart_river_default

I read the linked article and while the deaths of those young people was unfortunate, how is the crossing "broken?"  Sure, there appear to be very steep inclines leading up to the crossing but the article states that the driver was estimated to have reached speeds of up to 69 mph!  How is that the fault of the road?  I doubt the speed limit is even within 14 mph of that.

 

Really, though, $450,000 to raise the approaches to that crossing?  How much of that money, I wonder, will go to the consulting civil engineering firm to tell the road authorities to do what they know needs to be done any way! 

 

Such a large portion of government waste seems to be the result of making our country "idiot-proof" and paying PRIVATE CORPORATIONS and LAWYERS to make it so. 

 

I will dismount my soap box before I start to sound like someone commenting on a "Yahoo News" article.

It's not just a matter of raising the roadway to discourage drivers from trying to pretend they're the Dukes of Hazard.  Crossing like this are also an obstruction for a lot of low-slung semi's, which can (and do) get high-centered on the tracks.  Trust me on this....you wouldn't want to be a train engineer rounding a bend and seeing a semi with a  big load stuck on the tracks.

Grade crossing safety: Freight and passenger railroads take a multi-pronged approach

Communication and Signal

— by Walter Weart

 

Freight and passenger railroads continue to investigate any and all opportunities to improve grade crossing safety, from employing the latest construction methods to installing new technology to working on more effective ways to educate the public. Yet, more investigative work is needed to prevent crossing accidents and incidents.

 

"Although federal, state and railroad dollars continue to be spent to upgrade and install new active grade crossing traffic control warning devices, we continue to experience incidents at the railroad/highway interface," said Norfolk Southern Railway Assistant Vice President of Communication and Signals Ray Rumsey in an email. "The use of improved technology, ongoing efforts for grade crossing closures, coupled with public education and appropriate law enforcement, need to be pursued in our efforts to enhance public awareness at grade crossings."

 

In short: Making the safety grade at crossings requires a multi-pronged approach.

 

Read more at:  http://www.progressiverailroading.com/c_s/article/Grade-crossing-safety-Freight-and-passenger-railroads-take-a-multipronged-approach--34780#

Just came across this video, and it shows how long it really takes for a freight train to come to a complete stop, even with emergency brakes applied:

 

by Roger Bybee

 

When a runaway train slammed into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic in July, incinerating the city’s core and killing 47 people, it may have marked the end of the line for the perilous, profit-maximizing model of railroading that has enthralled corporate and government officials across North America and the globe.

 

The principal proponent of this laissez-faire template for railroading—raising income while minimizing maintenance costs, resisting safety regulations, and fighting unions and adequate staffing—has been, fittingly enough, none other than Edward Burkhardt, owner of the Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic (MM&A) railway whose train decimated Lac-Megantic this summer.

 

Burkhardt—who also owns MM&A’s parent company, Illinois based Rail World Inc., which controls rail lines in the U.S. and Poland in addition to several hundred miles of MM&A track in Canada—was a pioneer in recognizing the profit-generating possibilities of rail deregulation made available by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. The act permitted the formation of non-rail holding companies by rail corporations, who could then use the rationale that the rail lines had “new” owners to tear up existing union contracts.

 

A growing danger

 

The social costs—both to community health and to workers’ living standards and safety—of Burkhardt’s cost-cutting model were ignored by his admirers despite dangerous accidents in the 1990s that foreshadowed the Lac-Megantic catastrophe. On March 4, 1996, a derailment of a petroleum-laden train in Weyauwega,  Wis. set off a fire that blazed for two weeks and forced 3,000 residents from their homes. Only the actions of the conductor, who uncoupled the cars carrying chemicals and propane, prevented the fire from spreading even further. He was part of a two-man crew—at a time when several rail companies, including Wisconsin Central, were experimenting with cutting crew teams down to single members.

 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/21

 

Bybee explains the decisions that led to the train rolling into Lac Magantic and Burkhardt's agenda of reducting crews to one or none.

Yesterday afternoon, the ancient Norfolk Southern(?) bridge over Ledge Road in Macedonia deposited another large rock through a car windshield.  The road, the only one across I-271 between Alexander and SR-82, is now closed indefinitely and another battle between the city and the RR is no doubt forthcoming.

This is only a suggestion, but don't drive a low-profile crane truck across the railroad tracks. You might get stuck.....

 

This occurred two days ago in Mer, Louisiana. Here's another suggestion -- if you see white smoke/material spraying from a railroad tank car, leave quickly!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuH1Ogdx4cg

http://www.the-news-leader.com/news%20local/2014/10/08/norfolk-southern-s-ledge-road-bridge-in-macedonia-continues-to-shed-debris

 

NORFOLK SOUTHERN'S LEDGE ROAD BRIDGE IN MACEDONIA CONTINUES TO SHED DEBRIS

by Briana Barker | Reporter Published: October 7, 2014 12:00AM

 

Macedonia ­-- Motorists will have to travel Ledge Road at their own risk, after officials say rocks are still falling from the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge.

 

Ledge Road between South Freeway and North Freeway drives was closed Oct. 4 and was scheduled to remain closed until service workers could install warning signs, after sandstone from the bridge struck and damaged a vehicle.

 

Mayor Don Kuchta said a train going over the bridge dislodged a rock that struck Macedonia resident Randy Klauenberg's car. The rock caused the windshield to crack and small glass shards to land on the passenger of the vehicle's lap.

 

"We are cleaning up debris with the service department and making falling rock signs," Kuchta told the News Leader Oct. 6.

 

He said the signs are going up because the city can't control what is happening. It is up to Norfolk Southern to repair the bridge.

 

"One third of the city is inconvenienced, " he said of the closure. "I would bet the entire north half of the city uses Ledge Road to get around."

 

Kuchta added that only three roads run east to west through the city, Ledge Road, Highland Road, and Route 82.

 

"I have had to close it before, but now school is in and that's even worse," Kuchta said.

 

Ledge Road was first closed in 2013 after a similar incident, where a car ran into sandstone that had just been dislodged as a train was crossing.

 

At that time, Norfolk Southern Spokesman David Pidgeon told the News Leader the railroad's stance regarding the bridge was "It is sound for train traffic."......

A filmmaker wanted to get a shot for his movie from a certain train trestle, so he asked CSX for permission, but was denied. He went ahead with it anyway, resulting in the death of a camera operator. Tragic story.

 

http://www.scoutingny.com/why-director-randall-millers-statement-on-sarah-jones-death-is-absolutely-grotesque/

A filmmaker wanted to get a shot for his movie from a certain train trestle, so he asked CSX for permission, but was denied. He went ahead with it anyway, resulting in the death of a camera operator. Tragic story.

 

http://www.scoutingny.com/why-director-randall-millers-statement-on-sarah-jones-death-is-absolutely-grotesque/

 

That story has been a popular topic of discussion in the rail community. It centers on how so many people don't understand that a railroad is not public property, unlike a road. It's a very dangerous place, like an industrial plant, and the a-hole movie director deserved every bit of jail time and more.

It should probably be noted that Macedonia and Norfolk Southern came to an agreement regarding repair of the bridge over Ledge Road.  A good thing too, because this could have become a real showdown.  This is NS's main track, and Ledge the only E-W road between North Bedford and SR8 for several miles in either direction.

Trucking and Rail Industries Turn State Troopers Into Unwitting Lobbyists

By ERIC LIPTON

APRIL 1, 2015

 

WASHINGTON — David Latimer, wearing a South Carolina Highway Patrol button on his lapel, was working Capitol Hill one recent morning, warning of the dangers of longer and heavier trucks on the nation’s highways.

 

“If you have a bad truck accident, more of them are going to involve fatalities,” said Mr. Latimer, who passed out his card as the vice chairman of the National Troopers Coalition, which represents 45,000 law enforcement officers.

 

What he did not highlight was that he was being paid by a nonprofit group financed by the railroad industry, which stands to lose billions of dollars if the trucking industry is allowed to carry larger loads.

 

MORE:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/politics/trucking-and-rail-industries-turn-state-troopers-into-unwitting-lobbyists.html?emc=edit_th_20150402&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=27187300&_r=1&referrer=

Gotta love this supportive rail safety/anti-trespassing message by the Cavs and CSX.......

 

Cleveland Cavaliers ‏@cavs  5m5 minutes ago

You don’t want to get in our squad’s way – it’s like trying to take on a train. #NoContest #PlayItSafe @CSX

On Thursday March 10, this service van slid off a wet Eastland Road next to Ohio 237 by the I-X Center in Brook Park -- onto the busy Norfolk Southern tracks. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to try to remove the van. A freight train was approaching. The van never stood a chance...