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I'm not saying that the trains are 100% to blame, but. . . if they wouldn't be hauling a$$ through town like they are in the countryside, the impacts wouldn't be so severe.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CouponJack
Sb you cant fix stupid.....
So true, Jack..
I wouldn't drive a car over that particular crossing. On the other hand the trains come through town, booking it like they are in the open countryside. I would guess that some are going at least 50 mph, if not more.
It's not that easy to slow down a train. It would take some time for them to slow down and then get back up to speed so I don't blame them for not doing it. If pedestrians and cars would do their part, it wouldn't be a problem.
Look before you cross. Don't stop on the tracks. And don't walk on the tracks. Not a difficult concept to understand. Of course impatient people are rarely rational.
It's not that easy to slow down a train. It would take some time for them to slow down and then get back up to speed so I don't blame them for not doing it. If pedestrians and cars would do their part, it wouldn't be a problem.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,693,648 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bs13690
It's not that easy to slow down a train. It would take some time for them to slow down and then get back up to speed so I don't blame them for not doing it. If pedestrians and cars would do their part, it wouldn't be a problem.
I'm aware that it's difficult to slow down. It's usually the northbound trains going like a bat out of hell. They've been in the countryside since Gaffney. They are going to be going through towns continuously after Kings Mountain. What does it buy them? a couple of minutes?
Cars are not in this equation. It's semi trucks that can't clear 3 crossings.
It's the fault of truckers & pedestrians for being there, but as fast as I've seen those northbound trains booking it through town, I think that that makes the impacts worse.
A southbound train hit a drunk a while back & he lived. The northbound train killed this person.
To be honest, in my opinion, the speed of the train is not the issue here. Its the "said" person or vehicle thats on the track. If the train was doing 35 mph or 55 mph, the devistation would be the almost same. It would take a massive freight train a mile or two to come to a complete stop hauling thousands of tons of cargo.
There is also a lot more that goes into the speed of a train than the area that is going through. In one direction you may be leaving a major rail yard or station, with lots of other rail traffic. In this case the trains would be slow moving. If the south bound train is approaching a lively rail yard, it would be slowing. If the northbound train was leaving a busy rail yard or station, it would obvioulsy be accelerating as it picks up speed to begin its journey to its destination.
So long as propper grade crossing equiptment is in place, I think trains should be allowed to do whatever maximum speeds they are allowed to do by law. I used to commute on passenger trains that sped by schools and super busy intersections at 75+ mph. Its not the trains or railroads problem, its everyboby around the tracks that need to be more responsible in my opinion
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,693,648 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by noupf
To be honest, in my opinion, the speed of the train is not the issue here. Its the "said" person or vehicle thats on the track. If the train was doing 35 mph or 55 mph, the devistation would be the almost same. It would take a massive freight train a mile or two to come to a complete stop hauling thousands of tons of cargo.
There is also a lot more that goes into the speed of a train than the area that is going through. In one direction you may be leaving a major rail yard or station, with lots of other rail traffic. In this case the trains would be slow moving. If the south bound train is approaching a lively rail yard, it would be slowing. If the northbound train was leaving a busy rail yard or station, it would obvioulsy be accelerating as it picks up speed to begin its journey to its destination.
So long as propper grade crossing equiptment is in place, I think trains should be allowed to do whatever maximum speeds they are allowed to do by law. I used to commute on passenger trains that sped by schools and super busy intersections at 75+ mph. Its not the trains or railroads problem, its everyboby around the tracks that need to be more responsible in my opinion
Rail yards have nothing to do with this. Kings Mountain is the largest community, northbound, after Gaffney. Northbound, they then go through Bessemer City, Gastonia, the towns in eastern Gaston County, then Charlotte. The trains coming southbound are slower. They speed up after leaving town. Some northbound trains do come through slower.
The problem is that the tracks in downtown Kings Mountain were graded in a way that, in the 1800s, freight could be loaded/unloaded directly to & from horse drawn carts without a platform. This was normal in a lot of small towns at that time. The Oak Street crossing is in the same area.
This is a small section that is a problem only for semis. They sunk the tracks in an area of Gastonia. They could regrade & fix 2 of the 3 problem crossings in Kings Mountain. The other crossings in town are no problem. That's a lot of money to spend for a handful of idiots who think that no truck crossing doesn't include them. The easiest, cheapest thing to do is tell Norfolk Southern to tell their people & Amtrak to slow down both ways in town. Will that prevent impacts? No. It will reduce the violence of the impacts, though.
The easiest, cheapest thing to do is tell Norfolk Southern to tell their people & Amtrak to slow down both ways in town. Will that prevent impacts? No. It will reduce the violence of the impacts, though.
So because a handful of idiots driving 18 wheelers make the deliberate choice to put their life, their truck, and the safety of the train crew in peril, we need to penalize the railroad? Sorry, that doesn't fly by me.
How about holding the truckers responsible with something like this:
-if you deliberately put your truck in position to have it get hit by a train, you forfeit your CDL permanently;
-the trucking company is held liable for 100% of the cost to clean up the damage, repair the scuff marks on the train , and pay a stiff penalty for their driver's stupidity.
Just another case of people needing to be held responsible for their actions.
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, and pay a stiff penalty for their driver's stupidity. 
