AMTK Locomotive 66 Hit semi and damaged

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A Voice said:
Thirdrail7 said:
Ryan said:
The solution is simple - put red light cameras at grade crossings.

Institute a $1,000 fine for personal vehicles, $50,000 fine to commercial vehicles.

The cameras will pay for themselves, then pay for quad gates or whatever the best solution is, then can get moved to the next intersection.
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I was thinking the cameras and their monitoring would be more expense than the gate.
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According to the link below, the cost is under $80,000, which unfortunately - given the number of violations - would soon pay for itself.
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At locations like this with a very high rate of violations, yes.
 
Hmmmmmm. Yes. There's a way to do it. Pass a local law providing a cash payment to any person or organization which provides documented, date-stamped video evidence of an illegal raiload crossing by a motor vehicle, sufficient to lead to a conviction. Then ask the railroad politely to set up a camera to track cars & trucks going around the gate, explaining that they will be paid the prize for providing evidence. I think the railroad would be quite interested.
 
Like the red lite camera bit. However what to do when gates are down, by failure, or by equipment fowling the signals. Railroads I am told are not permitted to block a grade level crossing for more than 30mins. How long do people sit there waiting for a railroad maintainer to show up?
 
Just-Thinking-51 said:
Like the red lite camera bit. However what to do when gates are down, by failure, or by equipment fowling the signals. Railroads I am told are not permitted to block a grade level crossing for more than 30mins. How long do people sit there waiting for a railroad maintainer to show up?
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The time limits vary from state to state and most states exempt failure from the limits anyway. It's illegal to go around the gates when they are active, no matter the situation. The only time it's not is when there is a flager directing traffic.
 
Just-Thinking-51 said:
Like the red lite camera bit. However what to do when gates are down, by failure, or by equipment fowling the signals. Railroads I am told are not permitted to block a grade level crossing for more than 30mins. How long do people sit there waiting for a railroad maintainer to show up?
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There is something to be said for the impatience of drivers. How long indeed? I know some towns fine the railroads for improper gate activation and bill them if police support is needed.
 
How fast do you think the police will respond to a report of gates down, but no train.

How busy is the workload on a 911dispatcher.

Railroads did have some problems in the past get the information to right dispatcher, and then communicated to the right trains.

What is the response time of railroads maintain personal?

Are the police even trained in what to do, and what should be done.

I like bridges, not perfect but you must be truly talented to get hit by a train from a bridge.
 
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neroden said:
Seaboard92 said:
I like your idea Ryan. There is one place I've been I've watched school buses that were loaded go in front of trains. On a regular basis.
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Good god. What is wrong with your state? I've never seen school buses do this in NY or California.
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I live in South Carolina. So anything is possible. That town was Clinton by the way. It probably still happens. I've never understood why a town with twenty plus trains a day doesn't have gates for two crossings of four lane roads.
 
Seaboard92 said:
neroden said:
Seaboard92 said:
I like your idea Ryan. There is one place I've been I've watched school buses that were loaded go in front of trains. On a regular basis.
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Good god. What is wrong with your state? I've never seen school buses do this in NY or California.
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I live in South Carolina. So anything is possible. That town was Clinton by the way. It probably still happens. I've never understood why a town with twenty plus trains a day doesn't have gates for two crossings of four lane roads.
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We have at least one 4-lane highway with an at-grade crossing. I'm not sure if there are gates (never paid attention the few times I drive there), but do know they have stop lights in addition to the RR crossing lights.

Here's a recent close call in TX.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/close-call-camera-school-bus-narrowly-misses-train/story?id=37052898
 
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Do you seriously believe that the truck driver's insurance has anything to do with deciding whether a locomotive will be scrapped or not?

It will get towed to Beech Grove. Legal and insurance issues will get addressed and based on various factors a decision will be made. Let us not jump the guns here. None of us have any expertise or concrete information about how repairable the damage is or not. So let's chill for a while.
 
In the case of actual collisions, footage from the onboard forward-facing video camera that is present on most modern mainline locomotives can and should be used.

In the case of a near miss, this footage should also be used when it can be presented with corroboration or when the video shows something distinctive like a vehicle identification number, license plate, distinctive paint scheme, identifiable person, etc. If onboard footage doesn't exist, we have nothing to fall back on except eyewitness accounts.

Unfortunately, onboard footage only comes into play when there is an actual accident. I believe it should be used in the case of near misses, and I believe security cameras can be installed at a number of locations to be used in charging drivers, whether onboard cameras exist or not.

Tom
 
I found this video which is a recording taken Sunday from a web cam in Rochelle, Illinois of a westbound Union Pacific freight train. The fourth engine is AMTK 66. Anyone know where it went?

 
quoting an engineer friend: "The thing is, it's in a UP train. A stacker to be precise. It's not exactly going to swing by 16th and be dropped off. If it would have been a shuttle home it would have been a light engine move and delivered back to Chicago or an Amtrak crew could have come out and drug it back.

These units are unibody design known as a monocoque body. If there is too much damage to major components ? Then it's razor blades. End of story full stop. That crease and the amount of damage to the fuel tank, radiator and other components ( didn't have time to climb on and look) tells me this could be its last round up."
 
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Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion. However, I don't see any evidence that he has done a serious examination of the damage before stating his opinion. Therefore, I don't give much credence to your engineer friend's assessment at all.

As I said, it will be towed to Beech Grove once they get an irregular move permit, and then we will know what will happen to it.
 
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Maybe I'm missing something here. If it was damaged in Joliet, and if it is intended to go to Beech Grove (the logical place for repair), then why was it going westbound through Rochelle --- away from Beech Grove?

Tom
 
TylerP42 said:
quoting an engineer friend: "The thing is, it's in a UP train. A stacker to be precise. It's not exactly going to swing by 16th and be dropped off. If it would have been a shuttle home it would have been a light engine move and delivered back to Chicago or an Amtrak crew could have come out and drug it back.

These units are unibody design known as a monocoque body. If there is too much damage to major components ? Then it's razor blades. End of story full stop. That crease and the amount of damage to the fuel tank, radiator and other components ( didn't have time to climb on and look) tells me this could be its last round up."
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Would you mind if someone qualified actually took a look at it before you and your friend write it off?
 
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Thirdrail7 said:
TylerP42 said:
quoting an engineer friend: "The thing is, it's in a UP train. A stacker to be precise. It's not exactly going to swing by 16th and be dropped off. If it would have been a shuttle home it would have been a light engine move and delivered back to Chicago or an Amtrak crew could have come out and drug it back.

These units are unibody design known as a monocoque body. If there is too much damage to major components ? Then it's razor blades. End of story full stop. That crease and the amount of damage to the fuel tank, radiator and other components ( didn't have time to climb on and look) tells me this could be its last round up."
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Would you mind if someone qualified actually took a look at it before you and your friend write it off?
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They're opinions. Not facts. We're entitled to use our brains to come to our own thoughts for the time being. I personally am indifferent either way, if it gets scrapped or wrote off, or if it gets repaired. Personally not my problem.
 
TylerP42 said:
They're opinions. Not facts. We're entitled to use our brains to come to our own thoughts for the time being. I personally am indifferent either way, if it gets scrapped or wrote off, or if it gets repaired. Personally not my problem.
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From your strident posts and the fights you picked on Facebook about this, one could get the (possibly mistaken) impression that your life almost depended on this opinion being fact :p
 

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