Level crossing stupidity...

[melmerby]

Another motorist doesn't seem to know what the white lines down the road are for in La Grange KY:

 

[kevinlms]

11 hours ago, melmerby said:

Another motorist doesn't seem to know what the white lines down the road are for in La Grange KY:

 

So why didn't the stupid driver, not think of going to the wrong side of the road? Problem solved,.

[rab]

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

So why didn't the stupid driver, not think of going to the wrong side of the road? Problem solved,.

You've answered your own question, they were stoopid!

[PhilJ W]

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

So why didn't the stupid driver, not think of going to the wrong side of the road? Problem solved,.

 

35 minutes ago, rab said:

You've answered your own question, they were stoopid!

I noticed that as soon as he(she) was able to they scooted off down a turning on the right. If they had gone the other side they would have to wait another five or ten minutes for the train to pass.

[melmerby]

Pity they didn't think to move the rail line more into the middle of the road when they replaced the track a while back.

The road was completely closed with a lot of surfaced removed, whilst it was goung on.

An extra couple of feet would stop most of the problems.

[kevinlms]

37 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Pity they didn't think to move the rail line more into the middle of the road when they replaced the track a while back.

The road was completely closed with a lot of surfaced removed, whilst it was goung on.

An extra couple of feet would stop most of the problems.

Probably because it would stuff up the angle parking on the other side - less parking spots.

 

The real solution is a set of traffic lights preventing traffic going down there, when a train is coming. Its a very dangerous bit of road as it is.

[Siberian Snooper]

How about making it a one way street?

[melmerby]

42 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

How about making it a one way street?

That would be too easy!

Incidentally the junction of 1st Ave with Main St is the only one with lights and barriers, the rest just have crossbucks.

 

The ideal would be to move the railroad out of town. e.g follow the route of the I-71 across lightly populated ground, (although that would cut off the small yard alongside E Jefferson St.)

It's fairly close to the I-71 east of the town and crosses the I-71 west of the town and would in the long term save an awful lot for CSX (train delays with accidents), the town (clearing up after accidents) and motorists not having accidents. It would also tidy up the extremes of Main St.

Not likely to happen though.

 

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

.... The ideal would be to move the railroad out of town. .....

Then what would we watch for entertainment ? ☹️

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

The ideal would be to move the railroad out of town.

 

 

Move the town, the railroad was probably there first.....

[Fat Controller]

5 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

Move the town, the railroad was probably there first.....

The town was almost certainly built on land that had been gifted to the railway by the Federal government in an effort to encourage settlement.

 

[melmerby]

16 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

Move the town, the railroad was probably there first.....

Indeed, as it would have been in most cases in rural USA.

 

Unfortunately these days many of these smaller communities get no benefit from the railway and are just an operating inconvenience for the train companies such as at La Grange, with 10mph running through the populated area and a heightened risk of delays and accidents.

 

EDIT

An old map from 1932 appears to show double track through the town, I would asssume the second track would be on the north side of the current track, maybe that's the reason for it being assymetric.

From 1907 - 1935 there was an Interurban electric line from Louisville operated by Louisville Railways Co. It was 5' Gauge and appeared to run alongside the Louisville & Nashville (Now CSX) Line

Edited August 22, 2022 by melmerby

[Wickham Green too]

Unfortunately many of these smaller communities haven't had any benefit from the railway since they discovered automobiles and cheap gas. ( that's 'cars and cheap petrol' in English )

Edited August 22, 2022 by Wickham Green too

[Siberian Snooper]

I can't see the freight railroad companies, splashing the cash on bypasses, if the local or state authorities want to build and pay for bypasses, the railroad won't object, they will continue to put up with the inconvenience.

 

 

[boxbrownie]

Not a level crossing but……so tragic.

Park Royal crash: Woman killed as car ends up on Tube tracks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62589528

 

[Wickham Green too]

What is not clear from that report - but was apparent from the local TV news - was that the Range Rover hadn't just 'hit' the Tesla but had left the road at speed, landed on the Tesla at a charging station below and bounced off that then over a fence and over the station building ( lower level still ) before what remained came to rest on the track ............... it must have been travelling at quite some speed but this is not the place to speculate further. Lucky there were no trains about.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Wickham Green too

[Budgie]

17 hours ago, melmerby said:

An old map from 1932 appears to show double track through the town, I would asssume the second track would be on the north side of the current track, maybe that's the reason for it being assymetric.

From 1907 - 1935 there was an Interurban electric line from Louisville operated by Louisville Railways Co. It was 5' Gauge and appeared to run alongside the Louisville & Nashville (Now CSX) Line

 

As I understand it a lot of interurbans were bought up by oil companies, who promptly shut them down. Corporate greed at its worst.

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, Budgie said:

 

As I understand it a lot of interurbans were bought up by oil companies, who promptly shut them down. Corporate greed at its worst.

 

An (inter)urban myth, I'm afraid, largely based on one case involving General Motors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy#Role_in_decline_of_the_streetcars; in general they collapsed under the weight of their own inadequate financing and changes in the attitude of city authorities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interurban#Decline_in_North_America.

[Titan]

2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

What is not clear from that report - but was apparent from the local TV news - was that the Land Rover hadn't just 'hit' the Tesla but had left the road at speed, landed on the Tesla at a charging station below and bounced off that then over a fence and over the station building ( lower level still ) before what remained came to rest on the track ............... it must have been travelling at quite some speed but this is not the place to speculate further. Lucky there were no trains about.

 

There is some CCTV footage from the Tesla dealer. The road is a 40mph limit at that point, and the Range Rover crashes through the fence upside down at about Warp 8...

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Not a level crossing but……so tragic.

Park Royal crash: Woman killed as car ends up on Tube tracks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62589528

 

 

7 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

What is not clear from that report - but was apparent from the local TV news - was that the Land Rover hadn't just 'hit' the Tesla but had left the road at speed, landed on the Tesla at a charging station below and bounced off that then over a fence and over the station building ( lower level still ) before what remained came to rest on the track ............... it must have been travelling at quite some speed but this is not the place to speculate further. Lucky there were no trains about.

Apparently from another news report the Range Rover and another car, a BMW were racing each other an hour or more before the accident.

[johnofwessex]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Apparently from another news report the Range Rover and another car, a BMW were racing each other an hour or more before the accident.

 

While my wife isnt that keen on the idea you might understand why I think some driving offences should be treated from start to finish like firearms offences

[Wickham Green too]

Indeed - why should the penalties for causing death by dangerous driving ( one to 14 years in prison, and a driving ban for a minimum of two years ) be less than causing death by any other means ? ( The maximum sentence a judge can impose for manslaughter is imprisonment for life.)

[KingEdwardII]

12 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

changes in the attitude of city authorities

Well, town/city authorities in the UK massacred their tram systems from the 30s to the 60s, without much outside intervention. Only for some to start re-creating them at great expense in the 21st century.

 

Yours, Mike.

[Michael Hodgson]

36 minutes ago, KingEdwardII said:

Well, town/city authorities in the UK massacred their tram systems from the 30s to the 60s, without much outside intervention. Only for some to start re-creating them at great expense in the 21st century.

 

Yours, Mike.

I think you'll find that some of our pre-war tram systems were massacred by the Luftwaffe

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, johnofwessex said:

 

While my wife isnt that keen on the idea you might understand why I think some driving offences should be treated from start to finish like firearms offences

Rather OT but on Snapped and Trapped on BBC1 today there was a reckless motorcyclist who when stopped by the police for doing a wheelie on a busy road, sped off at incredible high speeds.

The police gave chase but gave up due to the high speeds.

The biker had obscured his numberplate and was filming from a helmet cam so presumably he could post his exploits on You Tube or such.

He was doing 80+ in a 20mph zone and 111 shortly afterwards.

Unfortunately for him he had already been snapped on a ANPR camera before obscuring his plate and the cops quickly caught up with him at home, complete with his camera footage.

The sentence IIRC was 8 weeks in jail suspended, a driving ban and some unpaid work. All rather lenient I thought.

They should've crushed his bike as well as some proper time in nick.

 

There are moves to make dangerous driving equivalent to murder and careless driving equivalent to manslaughter where a death is caused, not before time IMHO

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by melmerby