Quiet zones.

[Csxgp38-2]

People with loud music can't hear a fire engine behind them, what makes the FRA think they can hear a box with a speaker any better than a train horn?

[donjgatlin]

As weird as it sounds, Decatur AL, my home town, had the very first quiet zone established. People that where staying at a B&B were complaining. CSX and whoever went to court and came up with the solution here. So far nobody has been killed or run over because of the design of the crossing. There are even whistle posts set up with a red circle and arrow like a no smoking sign. Two railroads CSX & NS use this crossing with a combined train total a day of around 50 or so trains.

Now jump back in time about 50 years or so. SAL who was owned by ACL both where being hammered for the horns when coming through towns of the upper crust. The first solution was the old Hancock Air Chime. That is why they appeared on L&N locomotives as well. It was an attempt at quietening things down to appease the communities. They still raised cain. They went before the FRA & DOT in an atttempt to silence the horns all together in some communities. Well, the communities won and grade crossing accidents went through the roof. It did not take the communities long to cave back in.

Now jump back to today with the silent zones. CSX has had enough of some of these towns and are closing the crossings in some places. Several towns have complained about the horns and the crossings so CSX is shutting them down. Look up Athens AL and see what you find about all of this. Falkville AL had one of three crossings closed and raised cain about it. Look at Falkville on Google maps.

Rant over sorry.

So, basically CSX said 'Fine, complain all you want and you can just deal without a place to cross the tracks.'? As in their response was to completely remove the issue and to basically tell the town's people to find another way? If so, that sounds about what they should do. It's their tracks, they were there first, and they certainly pay for the land; Why should they have to let you cross THEIR tracks? The way I see it, why should I let you go through my house to get to yours? Simple, I don't have to because it's my house.

[5292nate]

It's a good analogy. If you want to get to the other side, live with the loud noise that happens only a few times a day.

[mapitts]

To a degree they said that. In reality what they did was to remove overlaping / duplicate crossings if that makes any sense. They cut them down by 1/3rd. The only problem in this state is something called Right of Eminent Domain. The railroads in this state cannot keep you from building a crossing due to this. Simply put, because they are in a sense like a river, they cannot keep you from building a crossing. They can and in many cases will help you design and find the best place for it. Not really a lot of new crossings built. However, due to the on going liability and costs with these crossings CSX has taken a far more aggresive stance on taking the problem on. Save some, eliminate some. Mostly the small towns complain. Like Falkville AL. They had three crossings. CSX made a proposal to remove one. You can stand in the center one and throw a rock to any of the others. Of coarse Falkville complained of killing downtown ( again look at it on Google maps ). Trains move through there at 50 MPH single track. It went to court and CSX had to put it back in service. What CSX did was to more or less build them a ramp with crossbucks. The crossings on either side are smooth and signal protected. The center one is something right out of an Evil Kenviel stunt ramp. Nobody can or does use it......but they have their little crossing.

[1225fan5358]

Was it UP that experimented with horns ON the signal?

Yeah, in Nebraska I think. World Record for most pointless thing to spend money on!

[mapitts]

Was it UP that experimented with horns ON the signal?

Yeah, in Nebraska I think. World Record for most pointless thing to spend money on!

I see that you must not work for 3M!!

[buzz456]

I see that you must not work for 3M!![/quote]
Or the guvmnt.

[mapitts]

I see that you must not work for 3M!!

Or the guvmnt. [/quote]


I think they use the same operating manuals. We had a meeting about 6 moths ago about how the "new" scheduling / planning was going to go fro us in central maintenance. I had a napkin and was doing the math on it as they talked. They mced more people off of their tools into other areas of lower managment / team leaders. They also siad that those postions would not be back filled and we would have to add 5% more to our scheduled / planned / emergency work. I finished up with the math and just sat back in my chair and slapped my forhead and said "Holy Smoke!" I was asked did I have anyhting to offer. I said well other than the fact that we now have a 1 leadership employee to 1.14 people on their tools, nothing. I asked them did they look at the USPS and how they operated and come up with this is what we needed. How drunk do you have to be when this starts looking like a good idea? None of my bosses where happy. I am not really sure why though.