People never cease to amaze me....

[8mpg]

I think we are going to need a picture... lol

[mikec]

Lol. Almost funny it is!

[Shaggin Wagon]

Shit, I wouldn't have known what to do either with the flares there. I would have just turned around myself. On a side note, can you just lift the arms a bit and they automatically go back up? I heard this somewhere but have no idea if there's truth to it.

[03trubluGT]

If i saw flares, id turn around and find another way.

Flares mean do not enter.

Go around in this case means turn around. It is impossible to go around this set of tracks.

[03trubluGT]

Shit, I wouldn't have known what to do either with the flares there. I would have just turned around myself. On a side note, can you just lift the arms a bit and they automatically go back up? I heard this somewhere but have no idea if there's truth to it.

I'm not touching the arms for liability sake. If I lifted them, and later a train comes and I unkowingly did something to the arms and they no longer worked properly, then I'd be in a shot-ton of trouble if someone got injured.

[slow99]

Typical cop doubletalk!

Go around in this case means turn around. It is impossible to go around this set of tracks.

Lmao!

[Shaggin Wagon]

Go around in this case means turn around. It is impossible to go around this set of tracks.

uh oh, grammer nazi's will be looking for you!!!

[Shaggin Wagon]

I'm not touching the arms for liability sake. If I lifted them, and later a train comes and I unkowingly did something to the arms and they no longer worked properly, then I'd be in a shot-ton of trouble if someone got injured.

Ah yes, that would not be good!

[ram57ta]

I'm not touching the arms for liability sake. If I lifted them, and later a train comes and I unkowingly did something to the arms and they no longer worked properly, then I'd be in a shot-ton of trouble if someone got injured.

Having a 12 year background as a signal maintainer for 2 railroads I can vouch that you made the right decision...I've seen police reprimanded for wedging up gate arms at malfunctioning crossings. Some crossing mechanisms operate on gravity and have no locking feature to hold the gates down so the gates can simply be lifted, but some railroads use gate mechs that power down the gate arms and then LOCK them into position so that the only way they can be raised is either to power them up by tricking the circuits, repairing whatever is holding them down (could be a number of issues related to lightning damage or even excessive runoff shunting the tracks), or to knock the gate down. Most railroads get seriously upset about ANYONE other than a qualified signals technician tampering with crossing equipment EVEN if they had good intentions.

[Machx2]

Having a 12 year background as a signal maintainer for 2 railroads I can vouch that you made the right decision...I've seen police reprimanded for wedging up gate arms at malfunctioning crossings. Some crossing mechanisms operate on gravity and have no locking feature to hold the gates down so the gates can simply be lifted, but some railroads use gate mechs that power down the gate arms and then LOCK them into position so that the only way they can be raised is either to power them up by tricking the circuits, repairing whatever is holding them down (could be a number of issues related to lightning damage or even excessive runoff shunting the tracks), or to knock the gate down. Most railroads get seriously upset about ANYONE other than a qualified signals technician tampering with crossing equipment EVEN if they had good intentions.

Yeah I hear they will protest for higher wages.

[03trubluGT]

uh oh, grammer nazi's will be looking for you!!!

I'm guilty of typing lazy on the iPhone.

[03trubluGT]

Having a 12 year background as a signal maintainer for 2 railroads I can vouch that you made the right decision...I've seen police reprimanded for wedging up gate arms at malfunctioning crossings. Some crossing mechanisms operate on gravity and have no locking feature to hold the gates down so the gates can simply be lifted, but some railroads use gate mechs that power down the gate arms and then LOCK them into position so that the only way they can be raised is either to power them up by tricking the circuits, repairing whatever is holding them down (could be a number of issues related to lightning damage or even excessive runoff shunting the tracks), or to knock the gate down. Most railroads get seriously upset about ANYONE other than a qualified signals technician tampering with crossing equipment EVEN if they had good intentions.

I don't work for the railroad, and those gates are RR property, not city property, not to mention I'm not a qualified technician, so I don't touch them.

[ram57ta]

I don't work for the railroad, and those gates are RR property, not city property, not to mention I'm not a qualified technician, so I don't touch them.

To add to that..several years ago when I worked at DART we had a bad storm one night with high winds that knocked out power to a lot of south Dallas and also broke the shear bolts on a few gates which caused some of them to fall down sideways onto the overhead catenary system (partially blocking the road AND the tracks). The overhead Catenary at DART carries 850 volts DC. A supervisor who apparently didn't understand how electricity works was ALMOST electrocuted when he attempted to raise the arm off the wires because someone who was sitting at the crossing started bitching about DART interfering with his night. Thankfully the substation tripped offline when it sensed a ground.

[likeitfast55]

I understood what he ment. He put flares down to turn "AWAY" motorists from the crossing.
Or go "AROUND"(find another way).


Serious dumb asses here.

[lxturbo]

So glad I decided to to push the weekly shoping trip to Target ......